Under The Hood
by The Red X
Summary: Red Hood's in town, and he plans to do something about Jump City's organized crime... His way. And unless the Titans get involved, he'll either bring peace to the city's streets, or burn it trying.
1. Start Up Costs

Author's Notes: This story takes place between seasons 3 and 4. No, this story is not supposed to have anything to do with Robin's identity, nor whether or not Jason Todd is really Red X.

………………………………………………………………………………...

There was nothing too special about Jones Roberto. He ran all the imports and exports in a little section of the docks on south Jump City. All the illegal imports and exports, anyway. Jones Roberto was involved in organized crime, and managed to make a nice living for himself by using his docks for anyone who needed contraband.

He was usually well dressed. Today he wore a tan dress shirt, unbuttoned at the top, and some nice black slacks. He didn't wear dress shoes but instead wore nice boater's shoes that didn't leave scuffmarks on a ship's deck. They were a must for anyone working on or near a boat, like the ones at his docks. Otherwise, he enjoyed the best that blood money could buy.

There was nothing too special about Jones Roberto, in Jump City's underworld.

Jones walked to his three-story tall office building on the wharf, and when he entered his plush office he was still being followed by two of his goons.

"But Mr. Roberto, what about the six o'clock shipment tomorrow?", one of his goons asked.

"Oh yeah, Aquista's shipment. Have it dock on pier 12 instead of 13. Then our shipment from Metropolis can still come in on time.", Roberto instructed as he sat in a soft leather chair behind his desk. "Now, is there anything else I should know about? I've got work to do."

"Uh, yeah. Red Hood roughed up one of our boys an hour or two ago. Another offer to join him.", one goon said.

Roberto chuckled to himself. "I told him already, we kick up to Black Mask. Not him. He's nobody."

"ChiChi and the rest of the south-side's runners have joined him, maybe we should too?", another goon offered his advice.

Robert looked at that second goon with a crooked eyebrow. "Red Hood is nobody. Showed up out of nowhere, and now he has a little territory east of us. Big deal. With Black Mask, we can either get fat, or we can get vaporized. I'd rather get fat and kick up to him, know what I'm saying?"

"But that's just what Winston over on 6th street said, and they say Hood almost blew him to kingdom come.", the first goon said.

"They say a lot of things.", Roberto said. "They say Black Mask is a zombie. They say Punk Rocket is losing his hearing. They say Johnny Rancid's had his tongue tattooed."

"But, sir-"

"Alright, that's enough. The answer to Red Hood's generous offer, is still 'No', and it will always be 'No'. Now unless you two brain donors have any other advice, I'd like to get back to my-" Roberto stopped when he noticed something across his office. An unopened package laid on the soft leather couch across from his office.

"Sir?", the other goon asked when he noticed the sudden inquisitive look on his employer's face.

"What's that over there?" Roberto pointed to the package. "When'd that get here?"

Both of the goons turned around and looked curiously at the package, and the second goon slowly approached it.

"Careful with that." The first goon instructed.

"Boss, it's addressed to you.", the second goon said when he picked up the package and inspected it. He walked over to Roberto's desk with it. "No return address."

Roberto pressed a button on the intercom unit on his desk and spoke into it, "Miss Withers, did I get a package today?"

"No, sir.", Miss Withers said from her own office elsewhere in the building.

The second goon set the package down on Roberto's desk.

Roberto took a letter opener of his and carefully cut the packing tape. Then he slowly opened the package, looking for tripwires or anything else that would indicate a trap. Once the package was opened, Roberto stared into the small sea of packing peanuts, and reached in.

The two goons watched was Roberto withdrew a red metal mask. The only features to be see on this mask were it's two menacing white eyes.

Roberto looked curiously at it for a moment, and then started laughing. His goons nervously followed suit and chuckled.

"I heard once that Red Hood wears a mask like this." He chuckled. "Is this supposed to be a joke?"

"No, not even close.", the mask said.

Roberto and his two goons jumped back slightly in surprise when they heard the mask talk.

"It- It talks?", the first goon asked.

"It's alive!", the second goon exclaimed.

"No, you moron. There's probably just a radio and speakers in this mask.", Roberto said, holding the mask.

"We have a winner, folks.", the mask said.

"I take it, you're Red Hood?", Roberto said to the mask.

"Yeah, that's right."

"Pleased to finally meet you.", Roberto said with a sort of unamused sarcasm. "Let me guess, you're here to offer me one last chance to join you, huh?"

"Yeah. That about sums it up.", the mask said.

Roberto rolled his eyes. "I work for Black Mask. You know that. And now you want me to forget him and kick up to you?"

"Yes.", Red Hood said through the mask.

"How dumb do you think I am?"

"Dumb enough not to realize this mask's heavier then it should be." Red Hood paused for a moment. "And that it's beeping."

"What?" Roberto turned the mask around in his grip, examining it from different angles. He turned it upside down to look inside the mask from the bottom opening where the wearer's head would enter it through, and his eyes widened.

Inside, the mask was filled with plastic explosives, and a simple timer was wired into the explosives. The timer read: 30

29

28

"Bomb!", Roberto yelled and dropped the mask on his desk. He immediately pushed aside his goons and ran out of his office, shouting "BOMB!"

His goons got to their feet and followed.

"BOMB! Everyone run! It's a bomb!"

Roberto, and everyone in the office began running out as fast as they could.

_KABLAM!_

Roberto's entire office on top floor was destroyed in a blast with the magnificent explosion, and only ashes and gently burning embers were left.

He and his two goons emerged from whatever crevice they had hidden in, and stared at what the blackened soot that was the plush office they had been standing in second before.

"M- Maybe… Maybe we should reconsider his offer.", Jones Roberto told his two goons.

-Under The Hood-

Mammoth walked into the small dingy hotel room and took off the large overcoat and hat he'd used to disguise himself on Jump City's streets.

"About time you're back, barf-brain.", Gizmo said as he worked on his jetpack on the hotel room's small desk. "Did you find any places worth eating?", he asked his large partner in crime who had complained about being hungry.

Mammoth sighed. "I did, but then something stole my sandwich. Stupid blur…" Mammoth sat on the uncomfortable bed.

Gizmo, Mammoth, and Jinx had been having a hard time making the bills meet ever since the H.I.V.E. academy officially fell under the combined efforts of the Teen Titans and Titans East. Because the Teen Titans had searched and dug around for any remaining H.I.V.E. students, they had to lay very low. And to make life somewhat more uncomfortable, Red X, who had often hired Gizmo to create various gadgets for him, was now out of town and had very little work to pay Gizmo to do.

In short, the three H.I.V.E. kids were having hard times and they were broke.

The reason these three trained criminals were staying in the uncomfortable hotel was because they were staking out an electronics store near by that they wished to rob. Hopefully some fresh cash and a few new electronic toys could make life a little more comfortable. Jinx was out scouting for an escape route after the robbery.

"Did you see Jinx out there?", Gizmo asked as he returned to working on his jetpack. Ah, the simple joy of tinkering.

"Yeah. She's scouting down 6th street.", Mammoth answered.

"Was.", Jinx said as she opened the door and startled her two partners in crime. "Man, everyone is spooked about something over there on 6th street."

"Oh yeah? Over what?", Mammoth asked.

"Who cares? Just a bunch of stinking snot-munching dorks anyway.", Gizmo offered his opinion.

Jinx ignored Gizmo's comment. "Don't know." She walked over to and vacant chair next to Gizmo's desk and across from Mammoth and sat. "But whoever it is, he's got everyone's attention."

"Anything we should worry about?", Mammoth asked.

"Probably not. If anything it'll make it easier for us to escape after this job."

"Good." Gizmo turned too his partners. "Because I don't want any crud-eating Titans showing up again."

-Under The Hood-

Robin, bathed in shadows and with his cape wrapped around him, slowly approached two thieves he'd just tied up with a bolas.

The two thieves laid on the floor of the alley as Robin's foreboding shadow loomed over them.

"I'll only ask once…", he said as grimly and with as much intimidation as he could muster. "What does Al Melee have to do with Control Freak?" Al Melee, an arms dealer in Jump City, had allegedly been seen with Control Freak. Robin knew these two thieves worked for Al Melee, he knew a shipment of blasters just like the ones they carried had arrived last week. Since he was breaking up their robbery, he thought he might as well find out what ever they knew about Al Melee. Control Freak wasn't the biggest concern he had on his plate at the moment.

The two thieves looked at each other, still tied tightly together in the bolas Robin had thrown at them, then looked back to Robin and said nothing.

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear.", Robin said, his glare deepening. Making sure criminals feared you was crucial. That's why Robin was being careful not to seem nice.

Then Robin's communicator started ringing. One of Robin's eyebrows raised and he turned away from the two thieves without a word. He withdrew his communicator from his belt and held it up.

"Yes?", he answered.

"Dude!", Beast Boy called out over the communicator. "Get over here now!"

"Beast Boy! What's wrong!", Robin asked, turning all his attention to Beast Boy's call.

"You're late for dinner!"

The expression Robin's face instantly turned from concern to annoyance.

"You were supposed to be here for Pizza twenty minuets ago.", Beast Boy whined. "If I don't get my vegi-lovers pizza here in five minuets my head is gonna explode!"

Robin heard the thieves behind him laugh, and then it seemed like a blood vessel in Robin's head was about to pop open.

"Oh, and by the way, Starfire wants to know if you've seen her missing-".

Robin cut the transmission and hung up on Beast Boy. He put away his communicator and turned around to look at the two chuckling thieves. Robin had just lost all the intimidation he held over them.

He sighed. This was going to be harder now.

Ten minuets later.

Beast Boy slumped against the table like an impatient little child.

"We're not eating until Robin returns.", Raven said firmly. "Which could be a while longer now…", she referred to the call Beast Boy had just made, which she had warned him against.

Beast Boy whined.

Starfire and Cyborg sat with them at the table of their favorite pizza place. The restaurant had always had good business ever since the Titans decided it had the best Pizza in Jump City, and the restaurant gladly kept a table reserved just for the Titans on the rooftop balcony at any given time.

"But I'm hungry…", Beast Boy said.

Raven was growing frustrated with Beast Boy, a feeling she was already used to, but her nerves calmed when she sensed a familiar presence near by. A presence that had made no effort in concealing itself from her.

"When he is getting here…?", Beast Boy said.

Suddenly a shadow loomed over the table. Robin dived down at the table, landing under the umbrella and directly in front of Beast Boy, an inch away from the green changeling's face.

"AAGGHH!", Breast Boy screamed and fell over off his chair.

"Missed me, huh?", Robin said with a deep smirk.

Cyborg and Starfire laughed, and even Raven couldn't help but smirk and chuckle.

"Not funny!", Beast Boy said from on the floor. Then he climbed back onto his chair.

Robin stepped off the table and took his seat, retracting the line from his grapnel gun that he used to slow his decent towards the table. "So what're we having?" He said as he took the menu Cyborg handed him.

From there, the late night pizza party took place as usual. They lightly quarreled among themselves, laughed, and tried not to talk too much about work. They ordered their pizzas. A meat-lovers for Cyborg, a vegi-lovers from Beast Boy, and the other three Titans ate some other type of pizza and the leftovers from Beast Boy and Cyborg's. Beast Boy had forgotten his wallet in his other pants, or so he said, so Cyborg offered to pay for his part. They all tipped well, and left.

Soon they arrived in the safety and solitude, of their giant "T" shaped tower in the middle of the city's bay.

-Under The Hood-

Was he dead? No one really knew. Anyone who asked him about his face usually ended up with his own face peeled off before they ever got an answer.

Black Mask, the largest crime lord in Jump City, had a very distinct look to him to say the least. His head looked like nothing more then a black skull, his lips gone and his nose stubby now. What was left of his skin was burnt and colored coal black. His head had been so grievously disfigured in a fire, a black mask he had once worn left a permanent impression on him as it burned while he still wore it, it's substance melting and permanently making his face that way.

Personally, Black Mask preferred his face that way.

He had gained control of Jump City's underworld not too long ago. After Slade "died" at the hands of Terra, Brother Blood and his H.I.V.E acamdey. stepped in and took Slade's spot. Then when the Titans dismantled Brother Blood and the H.I.V.E. academy, Black Mask had been able to grab the power for himself. Now, he was the biggest underworld leader in Jump City.

Black Mask sat in his personal limo and sipped his glass of champagne. His hand rested on a book about 12th century German needle torture that he was considering reading on his way home.

"Did you hear me, sir?", Mr. David Li, the half Asian person assistant of Black Mask, said. He sat across from Black Mask in the limo.

"Hmm?", Mask asked as he took one last sip of his champagne.

Mr. Li had always wondered just how Mask managed to gently sip his champagne without any lips to speak of, but somehow he did. "Did you hear what I said, sir?"

"About the new guy on the South side?"

"Yes. He could become a problem."

"He's not worth my time. It's only some territory in the south side."

"Still, where's there's smoke, there's fire."

"No. Where there's fire, there's fire. And at the moment I have all the gasoline. If some idiot wants to pick up the parking meter change by running the south corners, I've no problem with that."

"And if he's good?", Mr. Li asked.

"Then I'll either bring him into the fold, or I'll gut 'em. Depends on my mood.", Mask said nonchalantly as he took another sip of his champagne.

Mr. Li was obviously more concerned about this new face then his employer was. "Aren't you worried?"

"Nope. That's what I have you for."

Mr. Li made no remark and his face showed no change. He had always been able to speak more freely to Black Mask then any of his other underlings ever dreamed, but even Mr. Li knew better then to become a problem for Black Mask. He'd seen what Black Mask loved to do to his problems.

That matter seemingly settled, Black Mask set the book on 12th century German needle torture in his lap and thumbed through it with one hand while holding his champagne in the other one. "Hmm…", he mused, his thoughts lost inside the book.

Yes, Mr. Li had seen how Black Mask liked to deal with problems.

-Under The Hood-

"Yeah! This is the kinda crud I'm talking about!", Gizmo exclaimed with glee. "No more snotty barf for us!"

"Is there such a thing as snotty barf?", Mammoth whispered to Jinx.

Gizmo, Jinx, and Mammoth were having a grand time looting the electronics superstore for all it was worth. Gizmo had disabled their security system with the help of a little bad luck from Jinx. Mammoth lifted and hauled away huge computer and electronics boxes, Jinx used her hexes to defeat the cash registers and the safe's locks, and Gizmo set to work at stealing expensive software and smaller components.

Gizmo picked up a box for a cutting-edge PDA and waved it in the air as he flew around on his jetpack. "Yeah! MP3 capable and with a fractional T1 Wifi connection! Cool!"

Jinx and Mammoth were in the midst of their own looting, and looked at him with strange expressions on their faces. They obviously had no clue about any of the techno-babble that Gizmo was saying, but he hadn't seemed to notice.

"What? What is this crud? Only a two gigabite memory card? Pfft, I've seen better snot in the garbage can outside of crud-eaters central.", he tossed a side a box for a memory card. "And look at this computer… BlueTooth capable, that's nothing special. But it does come with a built in webcam and a lighting keybord. Hmmm… Wonder what's the hard drive space."

He continued to ramble like that for a while as Jinx and Mammoth went on their merry way. But it was getting on their last nerves quickly.

"Hey, this one isn't supposed to have a PCI card slot! I thought they got rid of that last year. Hey! But it does have a superdrive and 2 gigahurtz Intel chip inside. Never thought I'd see an Intel in one of these." Gizmo held up the laptop that was on display for his partners to see. "Which crud-muncher had the idea of putting an Intel chip in one of these?"

Suddenly, as if to grant Jinx's and Mammoth's wish that he'd shut up, a blast hit the laptop and broke it to pieces. The pieces of the shot laptop fell to the floor next to Gizmo.

"Huh! What the-"

Jinx, Mammoth, and Gizmo all looked over and saw a figure standing on a top shelf of computer boxes holding the blaster rifle that had shot the laptop.

He wore a red metal mask, which's only feature to be seen were the ghostly white lenses of his eyes. He wore a grey shirt and dark pants, topped off with tough but light and flexible boots. Most notably of all, he wore a black biker's jacket, minus any frills like tassels or buckles. Just a simple black leather jacket with its collar up. Around his belt was a subtle grey utility belt. Judging from his height and build, the figure was young and perhaps not too many years older then any member of the Teen Titans.

The figure stared at the three H.I.V.E. kids, the blaster in his hand raised and ready for another shot.

"Geez… Does he always go on like that?", the figure in the jacket asked.

"Who are you?", Jinx shouted back as she dropped her sack of cash.

"Name's Red Hood.", the figure with the jacket said. "Hear of me?"

All three kids shook their heads "no".

"Guess you wouldn't have. I just came back from a long vacation. But now I'm tan and rested, and I'm going to be running things from now on. All of Jump City.", he said. "Including you three, you work for me now."

The three young criminals laughed.

Gizmo flew toward the figure and then hovered in the air. "Do you have any idea who we are?", he asked. "We're the Hive Kid's, barf-brain."

"I know _exactly_ who you are.", Red Hood said seriously.

"Yeah? Well we don't work for just any barf munching, crud shooting, snot-"

_Blast!_

Red Hood fired at Gizmo's jetpack's left thruster, and the device pitched hard to the side. "AAGGHH!", partially out of control, Gizmo flew into a shelf of computer accessories.

Red Hood watched with a sort of sly satisfaction. "You talk way to much."

Suddenly his blaster systematically fell apart, arcs and sparks of pink energy coursing over it. Red Hood, surprised, dropped the weapon as its components disassembled in mid air.

Jinx smirked, her eyes glowing pink and her hand in the air pointing towards where the blaster had been in one piece. "Yeah, but he's right. We don't work for just anyone."

Mammoth walked up beside her and said, "Yeah, who do you think you are?"

Red Hood shrugged his shoulders in a light chuckle and lowered his arm and now empty hand. "Oh, I see. This is the part where we have a big fight to establish the pecking order."

"Fine by me!" Jinx opened her hand and sent waves of pink energy flowing through the air.

Hood jumped off the shelf just before the pink energy hit it, causing the shelf to fall apart and tumble apart. Hood landed on another shelf, ran down it and towards Jinx and Mammoth, and then jumped off. He threw a volley of smoke bombs in the air that exploded all over.

"Hey! What is this- Umph!", Mammoth said as the bottoms Red Hood's boots landed in his face. Mammoth fell back and Hood fell to the ground then rolled away past and behind Jinx.

Jinx frantically fired hex after hex at Hood, but he just sprung to his feet and reached into his jacket. He pulled out two blaster pistols from inside his jacket and fired at Jinx.

Hood dived for the ground and cart wheeled while firing, and one of his blasts hit Jinx in the stomach and sent her reeling back to the ground.

By this time Mammoth and Gizmo had recovered and where coming back for more. Red Hood ran across the store while firing at them, keeping their advances at bay. When Jinx got back up with a groan, Hood ran and hid behind a pillar to keep the electronics megastore's roof up.

"This guy is going down!", Gizmo yelled as he flew forward towards Hood.

"You got that right!", Jinx fired hexes wildly, trying not to hit her smaller partner.

"Hey, Barf-Brain!", Gizmo flew around the pillars one side towards Hood.

But Hood immediately reached out and grabbed him. "Speaking." Hood swung Gizmo around on his own jet-powered momentum. When they appeared from the other side of the pillar, Hood was holding Gizmo in front of him and used the boy as a shield against Jinx's hexes.

When Gizmo was hit with a pink hex, bad luck plagued his gadgets and his backpack suddenly began to spark. "Uh oh.", he said. Then the jetpack thrusters kicked into over drive while weapons and his massive spider legs began to unfold from inside the backpack.

Gizmo was ripped from Hood's grip by the out of control jetpack. He flew around out of control, spider legs flailing and weapons firing randomly. Gizmo screamed before impaling Mammoth, and sent both of them flying across the room with a trail of smoke behind them.

Jinx watched in a mixture of surprise and amusement of Hood's resourcefulness. He'd used her powers to attack both her partners. Her attention snapped back to the fight when he was already half way to her.

Hood jump kicked, and when Jinx dodged his leg destroyed a high definition TV. Jinx fired a hex, but in a burst of speed, Hood removed his foot from the TV's broken screen and darted away. The hex hit the broken screen and it burst into sparks and broken glass.

She quickly turned to Hood and fired again, but he dodged and she caused another TV to explode in a fire of sparks and broken glass. She fired a third time, Hood dodged again, and another TV exploded.

"Stay still!", she threw her head back, held both arms out, and sent hexes flying around her. The entire department of high definition TV's explode in a hailstorm of sparks and smoke.

Jinx looked desperately for Red Hood, but couldn't see him past the sea of sparks and smoke that surrounded her.

"Psst. Up here."

Jinx turned around and looked up, and saw Red Hood lunge at her with a large electrical extension cord in his hands. A short yelp was the only reaction she could muster before it was too late.

Mammoth and Gizmo finally had recovered and got Gizmo's backpack under control. They ran over just as Jinx emerged from the sea of sparks and smoke.

She was tied up in the electrical cord and flew back head first into a video game display. "Oof!", she said as it crumbled under her.

Red Hood bolted out of the ruined TV department, and saw Mammoth and Gizmo.

Mammoth yelled and ran forward. Red Hood ran off and jumped on top of the customer service departments counter top. Hood perched himself there and waited for Mammoth's advance.

Mammoth ran forward and lunged towards Hood, but Hood jumped away at the last second just as Mammoth crashed into the counter. The counter broke away into splinters beneath Mammoth's force, but then Mammoth heard beeping.

"Left you a present.", Hood said.

_BOOM!_

A miniature bomb Hood had left behind on the counter exploded. It utterly destroyed the customer service department and sent Mammoth flying.

"The scuz-sniffer's using high-explosives!", Gizmo yelled.

Red Hood turned his head and found the young genius was looming over him, raised on his four large mechanical spider legs. Hood reached into his jacket.

"Say goodnight!", Gizmo said as he raised one leg and sent it flying down.

"Goodnight.", Red Hood withdrew a Kris knife from his jacket and sliced. The curving blade of the exotic knife cut into the metal of Gizmo's spider leg, slashing circuits and hydraulic lines alike.

Hood jumped back and raised the knife in his hand, and twirled it between his fingers at a blurring speed as Gizmo inspected the deep gash in the mechanical leg.

Gizmo was struck dumbfounded at the knife's cutting power, but before he could make another remark…

_Slash! _

Suddenly the rest of the spider leg was severed and lay on the floor, twitching and sparking.

"Agh!", was all Gizmo could muster to say as Hood advanced. Gizmo backed up best he could but Hood continued to advance. Hood either sidestepped or spun to avoid every attacking spider leg, and replied with wish slashes from his knife.

"Someone get this guy off me!", Gizmo yelled as Hood waved his knife back and forth, hacking away at the spider legs until Gizmo was forced to walk on his own two feet.

_Slash!_

Red Hood sliced away the last of Gizmo's mechanical legs, leaving only sparking stumps that protruded form his backpack. Then Hood delivered a furious snap kick into Gizmo's tiny gut and sent the boy genius flying across the floor like a spiked football.

Jinx was using her powers to untangle the power cord, and in one final burst of power managed to break through it. Mammoth also started to recover, and ran headstrong back at Red Hood.

"AGH!", Mammoth yelled in savage fury.

Red Hood turned around, and with a glare threw his knife high up in the air. The knife spun end over end as it flew through the air. As it flew, it hit and severed two cables that held up a large sign that read "Customer Service". The sign fell on top of Mammoth and the giant collapsed under the sign. The knife flew and then stuck itself in the wall near the ceiling over the customer service desk.

"Mammoth!", Jinx yelled, and took aim for Red Hood.

"Time to end this show.", Red Hood said as he ran towards Mammoth and narrowly dodged a hex.

Just as Mammoth was gathering his senses again, Red Hood stepped on his face then proceeded to run up the sign. "Oof!", Mammoth said when he was under Hood's heel.

At the top of the sign, high above the rest of the Hive Kids, Hood jumped off and dived for his knife stuck high in the wall.

Jinx watched as the leather-jacket clad man in the metal mask flew through the air and sailed towards his Kris knife.

Hood pulled up his legs and hit the wall feet first as he grabbed the hilt of his knife in a reverse grip. The knife cut downwards into the wall for a moment as it was pulled down by Hood's weight. Then Hood turn glare at Jinx, which sent a slight shiver down her spine, and he jumped towards her, pulling the knife out of the wall and with him in his grip.

Hood reached into a compartment on the right side of his belt with his left hand as Jinx unleashed a desperate volley of hexes at him. In midair, Hood withdrew and threw several smoke bombs, which intercept Jinx's hexes and exploded into a thick cloud of smoke and gas.

Then Hood fell through the cloud feet first, stomach down and back to the ceiling, and slammed into Jinx in a devastating hammer kick.

The world was one big white flash to her for a second, but then she found herself flying backwards again. Hood landed and skidded with his back to her, and then he shifted around to face her and dived at her. Jinx's back hit the floor and she slid, still propelled by Hood's bone crushing kick which could have easily shattered every bone in her upper body if he hadn't delivered it just right.

As soon as she looked up, Hood grabbed her and tackled her back against a support pillar. He savagely slammed her against it, barring her with his left arm, and held the knife in its reverse grip in his right hand to her neck.

She stared at him, half dazed and half terrified.

"Checkmate." He said as he pulled the knife back over his left shoulder and grabbed a large section of fabric from her costume's shirt.

Jinx closed her eyes and a barely audible whimper escaped her.

Red Hood stabbed his knife into the fabric he pulled away from her costume and pinned her to the pillar. She opened her eyes in surprise.

Then, as suddenly and as brutally as he attacked her, he let go and darted away.

Mammoth yelled in savage fury as he threw the sign off him. He was battered and bruised, and just a little burnt, and ready for one last attack. Gizmo extended micro-missile launchers from his backpack and fired. The missiles exploded all around Hood's footsteps as he barely dodged them and ran towards Mammoth.

Mammoth raised his hands together and clubbed at Red Hood, who jumped back to dodge, then jumped on Mammoth's back. Then Hood jumped off and Mammoth heard a beeping noise again.

"Not again!"

_BOOM!_

Mammoth was sent flying into a shelf of computer books and toppled it and two other rows of shelves over.

Hood landed and dived while he withdrew a blaster pistol from his jacket.

"Fry barf-brain!", Gizmo said as he extended a blaster from his backpack.

They both took aim at each other.

_Blast!_

Suddenly Gizmo's blaster exploded into pieces after a direct hit from Red Hood.

Hood rolled on the ground, landed in a position of kneeling on one foot, and raised his blaster again.

_Blast!_

The controller in Gizmo's hands was blasted away.

_Blast!_

His goggles were shot off his head.

_Blast!_

The final control panel on his chest was blown apart.

Gizmo stood with wide eyes in total shock. He tried to talk, but couldn't move. Words choked and fell apart in his throat.

Red Hood glared.

_Blast!_

Gizmo was sent flying back by the force of the stun shot from Hood.

Red Hood stood up and withdrew the other blaster from his jacket and aimed at Jinx who dared not move. He checked Mammoth, who lay among rows of shelves. He glanced at Gizmo, who was moaning as he slowly got up.

He raised both blasters to his head's level and pointed to the ceiling, and waited while they recovered.

"I don't think anyone will have a problem working for me now, will they?", he asked them.

They all shook their heads "no".

"Good.", he said, holstering his blasters. Then he turned his attention to Jinx and walked back over to her.

She nervously fidgeted and tried to free herself of the knife pinning her to the pillar.

But instead of finishing her off, when the menacing Red Hood approached her, he reached out and pulled the knife out of the pillar in one swift but powerful motion. He stared deep into her eyes as he spun the knife in his hand. The knife spun at an almost blurring speed before he caught it by the hilt again, and then put it back in it's small scabbard in his jacket.

He turned to Mammoth and Gizmo, who were struggling to get up. "Fall in soldiers.", he said. "Come get your new orders."

Mammoth and Gizmo got themselves up and came, even though they told themselves they only came so they could shred him to pieces. Jinx, much more heavily affected by the armor-clad biker known as Red Hood, slowly stood up while keeping her back close to the pillar. Red Hood took a subtle step back so he could face them all instead of being surrounded.

"Listen up, like I said, you all work for me now. Lucky for you, you get a pretty cushy job.", Hood said. "I'm gonna be running this city pretty soon, and you all get to be my top enforcers. Cool, huh?"

Mammoth and Gizmo both raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"I'll have you on retainer. Which means you three are free to commit as many other crimes as you want, so long as it doesn't get in my way. I'm your top priority. I come first.", Hood said.

Jinx relaxed somewhat, inwardly ashamed at being so aw-struck and affected by Red Hood. But that was Jinx's way. When she saw a better bad guy, a bigger authority, she aspired to be like it. And perhaps Red Hood knew that.

"Of course, they'll be times when I need your… individual talents.", Hood explained. He looked at Gizmo. "Anytime I need something built." He looked at Mammoth. "Anytime I need something lifted or thrown." And then he looked at Jinx. "Or anytime I just need something to… Simply go wrong."

"And what do we get paid for this?", Jinx said, feeling the need to assert herself.

Red Hood narrowed his eyes and fixed his gaze on Jinx, which made her almost regretted talking.

She tensed up again as he leaned in close and whispered something into her ear. Then Red Hood stepped back.

"That per month?", Jinx asked.

"Per week.", Red Hood corrected her.

"Oh.", She said with wide eyes and a closed mouth. "Okay.", she promptly agreed.

Red Hood addressed the group again. "That's the deal. The catch? Stay away from schoolyards and little kids. Otherwise, I wont play so nice next time."

"What about the Titans?", Gizmo asked.

"Capes are fair game.", he said. "I may not care what you do with your spare time, but don't play too rough with them. I got plans for them. And you _don't_ want to mess up my plans. If you see them, have your fun and scare them off. But save any big guns for later." He explained. "Go it?", Hood asked sternly. "Leave them to me."

"Uh… Got it.", Mammoth said. "Don't squash the Titans… Yet?"

"That's right, fuzzy-wuzzi." Red Hood paused. "Do we have a deal?"

The Hive kids all looked at each other and nodded amongst themselves.

"You've got a deal.", Jinx said.

"Good." He reached into his belt and withdrew a device and he handed it to Jinx. "It's a communicator. Call me if you need me or if you get in over your head. But don't waist my time."

Jinx nodded and grasped the device tightly. "Right."

"Good. Then we're in business.", Red Hood said, trying to make himself seem a bit more cheery and optimistic. "And speaking of business, here's your first job", he said to Gizmo as he reached into his jacket and took out a disk protected in a metal case.

Gizmo took the disk and gave it a quick examining glance.

"I need a containment field built. By this time next week, if not sooner."

"You need a what by when?", Gizmo asked.

"That's right. Did I stutter?", Hood asked, narrowing his eyes into a glare.

Gizmo chuckled nervously in an attempted to lighten the mood. "Uh… Nope, that's just fine with me."

"Good. Contact me when it's done. The rest of you, make yourselves known. You're my enforcers now. Keep things running smoothly.", he instructed. "Well, later.", he said with a half-hearted ease in his voice. Then he turned around and walked away toward the store's front door as abruptly as he came.

The three kids watched dumbfounded.

He stopped and looked over his shoulder. "And, hey, try not to look so bummed. This is the start of a beautiful business relationship.", he said.

Then he walked off out of sight outside.


	2. Inventory Management

Three days later.

Red Hood slept. And in his sleep he saw a black abyss. Just a simple black abyss. And in the depths of the black abyss he could make out the shape of some winged animal. A bird? No, the animal had no feathers.

The faint image of the animal beat it's leathery wings back and forth and continued to fly towards Red Hood, yet it did not get any closer. The animal did not come any closer no matter how hard it flapped it's wings.

And suddenly, there was a giggle. Then a chuckle. It developed into a good hardy laugh. Then too a full belly laugh. A deep gut wrenching laughter. An uncontrollable hysterical laughter. It never ended. The laugh continued, growing louder until it was all anyone could ever hear.

All Red Hood could hear in his sleep was the never-ending laughter. And he couldn't look away from the strange animal just barely peeking out of the shadows, trying desperately to fly to him. He found himself longing for the creature, wishing for it to come.

The laughter continued, and it was all Red Hood could take.

"AGH!", waking from his subtle nightmare, Red Hood jackknifed out of bed. Breathing heavily, his Kris knife clutched tightly in his grip, he stared at the wall until he calmed down.

That dream again.

Once he had calmed his nerves, Red Hood set his knife aside on his nightstand and resolved to get out of bed. He had a lot of work to get done before tonight.

But first, a good work out and maybe some breakfast.

-Under The Hood-

Later that day.

Starfire gently hummed to herself as she hovered high in the air with a bucket of water in one hand and a wet rag in the other. She was cleaning the outside of the windows of Titans Tower. It wasn't a job that needed to be done often, but she was glad to help.

She waved her wet rag over the glass, and was somewhat displeased at how stubborn one particular spot on the glass was being. "Hmm…" She scrubbed harder and harder. But the spot was still there. So she scrubbed some more.

Inside the Tower, each other Titan went about his or her duties in cleaning the tower. Cyborg was vacuuming, and when needed lifted up something heavy to clean under it. Beast Boy flew around the tower, taking different animal shapes as he carried around the duster in his mouth. Raven stood in the kitchen and used her powers to clean and wash dishes all around her. And Robin polished whatever needed special attention. Starfire was still scrubbing that stubborn spot and was becoming less patient with it.

Beast Boy flew into the main living room in the form of a large bird, caring the duster in his beak. Then he transformed into his human form, landed on the ground, and grabbed the duster out of his mouth. "Eck! Man… Dust tastes so nasty."

"Then don't eat it.", Raven said as a casserole dish floated past her and was immediately attacked by flying wet sponges.

Cyborg held the couch up in hand and vacuumed under it with the other, he had been cleaning all of Titan Tower in a similar fashion.

Robin was carefully cleaning the computer consoles. He had a miniature can of compressed air to blow away bits of dust caught inside a keyboard. He glanced up and saw Starfire in front of him on the other side of the thick glass. She was still scrubbing away at that spot.

A beeping noise came from Cyborg's arm, and he set down the couch carefully then turned off the vacuum. He examined the display on his wrist and said, "We got work elsewhere, guys."

"What is it?", Robin said, changing into full crime-fighter mode and turning away from Starfire, although he did glance back.

"There's a disturbance down at the South side docks. Old H.I.V.E. members were spotted.", Cyborg explained.

Raven slowly set every dish and item in the kitchen on a counter top. "Get Starfire. Let's go."

Robin turned around and knocked on the glass to get Starfire's attention. Once he had the girl's attention, he pointed to his communicator, and then slammed his right fist into his left open palm.

Hero time.

Starfire nodded.

"Let's go. We'll meet her outside.", Robin said.

Following his lead, the rest of the Titans followed him in running out of the room.

Starfire gave one last quick scrub at the spot, which was still there afterwards. Starfire was unamused to say the least. "Stupid spot!" Then she attacked the spot with a low powered blast of energy from her eyes that vaporized the spot away.

With the window finally spotless, Starfire smiled widely and giggled a little. Then she flew off with her bucket and rag to meet the other Titans and save the day.

-Under The Hood-

Nothing.

Each of the Titans regrouped at Pier 18 after having split up.

"Find anything?", Robin asked.

"I got nothing.", Cyborg said.

"Ditto.", Raven said.

"My search for any suspicious enemies was unsuccessful as well.", Starfire explained.

"Yeah, what she said.", Beast Boy said.

"I don't get it.", Cyborg said. "The computer picked up police transmissions about H.I.V.E. members at this location. But I don't see anybody."

"Could it have been a false alarm?", Starfire asked.

"Possible. It does happen from time to time. But this police transmission seemed pretty legit.", Cyborg said.

Above them, on the rooftop of a warehouse, Red Hood perched himself with a miniature set of binoculars. He watched the Titans through the binoculars, and between the expressions on their face, they're body language, and what lips he could see well enough to read, he gathered that they're wild goose chase had gone as planned.

It had been easier to then he thought to lure them out here. All he had to do was point a few fake transmissions on the police frequencies specifically at the Tower with a directional transmitter, so no one else could hear it, and just wait for them to show.

Now came both the tricky and the entertaining part. All the pieces were in place, so all he had to do was follow his plan.

Red Hood put away his binoculars and stood strait, looming over the teenage heroes.

"What's the point of any of the old H.I.V.E. members coming here anyway?", Raven asked. "There's nothing to steal or do here."

Starfire gasped. "Friends! Perhaps they would like to steal this!" She held up a giant anchor that was as large as she was.

"Uh… Starfire, that's an anchor.", Robin informed her.

Red Hood was getting a little annoyed and was wondering how long it would take these clueless kids to notice his silhouette on the rooftop.

Raven watched with a sort of quiet amusement as her teammates tried to explain to Starfire the purpose of a ship's anchor. Then she spotted Hood on the rooftop of the adjacent warehouse. "There!", she shouted.

_About time._, Red Hood thought.

Just as the other Titans turned to look, Red Hood turned around and ran, allowing the Titans only a glance at the suspicious figure. Red Hood ran across that rooftop, and reached the end of it just as the Titans emerged from the other side.

Hood jumped off the rooftop, and landed on another adjacent one only one story down. He rolled with his landing and kept going.

"I see him!", Starfire shouted as she carried Cyborg in the air above and ahead of the rest of the Titans.

"Who is he?", Robin, who was giving pursuit on his own two feet, shouted to them.

"Don't know.", Cyborg said back. "Some dude in a leather jacket and a red head."

Robin jumped to the next rooftop and landed into a roll. Beast Boy swooped down in the form of a hawk, and Raven followed like a missile in a blue cloak.

"He's fast.", Raven noted as she caught up to Robin.

Red Hood jumped to another rooftop and over an alley with a single jump, and grabbed a ladder leading to another story of that buildings rooftop. He quickly climbed up as the Titans approached.

Cyborg raised his arm and fired a grapnel cable, but it just barely missed Hood as he climbed up and disappeared over the next rooftop.

"Lift.", Robin said to Raven as he held up his grapnel gun. Raven gained altitude and suddenly Robin's grapnel gun was wrapped in her black energy. She lifted Robin higher as he held on to the grapnel, essentially carrying Robin and saving him the hassle of the jump.

Red Hood finally reached the end of this rooftop, and jumped over the side.

The Titans, hot on his heels, hovered in mid air over the edge of the rooftop and watched just as Red Hood fell threw a skylight in a warehouse just below and disappeared in the thick darkness inside.

"Titans! Follow him!", Robin ordered.

Inside it was pitch black. Robin, aided by his grapnel gun, landed first on the cold hard floor of the warehouse that Red Hood had disappeared in and put away his grapnel. Then the rest of the team flew in through the broken skylight. Starfire set Cyborg on the ground as the rest of the team looked into the shadows.

"Uh… Can someone turn on some lights please!", Beast Boy said after he turned back into human form.

And then suddenly the lights came on. Construction style halogen work lights lit ever corner of the warehouse as they stood against walls and atop catwalks.

The Titans all squinted their eyes as they adjusted to the light and took fighting stances, ready for anything. They saw that the old large warehouse had a few crates scattered around. And ahead of them, standing calmly on the cold floor, was Red Hood.

"Hey.", he said.

"Who are you?", Robin demanded, still not sure whether or not classify Red Hood as friend or foe.

"Name's Red Hood. You'll be hearing about me a lot from now on, so I thought I'd introduce myself now, and save us all the awkward formality of name cards.", he said.

After a short pause in the conversation, Starfire spoke up and said, "So… You are a villain, yes?"

"I'm sure they'll say so.", Hood answered.

"Well whoever you are, if you're looking for trouble, you came to the right place.", Cyborg said.

"Glad to hear.", Red Hood said. Then he held up a small detonator grasped in his grip, and pressed the red button with his thumb.

Suddenly small hidden charges in the floor around the Titans went off, spreading nothing more then smoke and thick gas around them. Then before Robin could utter his first command to the team, Red Hood descended through the gas and drop kicked Raven in the stomach and sent her rolling on the floor.

_When outnumbered…_ He stood, spun, and hit Robin in the chest with a spin heel kick. _Always attack the most powerful and the leaders first._

Beast Boy transformed into a pterodactyl and beat his massive wings to spread the smoke away.

In the dissipating cloud of gas, Red Hood saw the glow of Cyborg's sonic cannon and Starfire's hands. He darted to Cyborg just as the half-mechanical Titan fired.

Red Hood leaned to the side as the blast glanced over his shoulder. Cyborg fired again and Red Hood jumped over blast. Then Hood landed next to Cyborg, grabbed his cannon and pushed it upwards and away from.

"Hey!", Cyborg protested.

Then Hood let go and darted away.

"Get back here!", Cyborg said as he took aim with his sonic cannon arm again. But what he didn't know was when Hood grabbed the cannon; he planted a miniature grenade on it. As soon as the cannon charged to fire, the grenade exploded. "Agh!", Cyborg clutched at his arm and examined the blast damage. The grenade had not totally destroyed his arm, but it was far too damaged for the sonic blaster to fire. "Oh… YOU DID NOT JUST DO WHAT I THINK YOU JUST DID!", Cyborg yelled.

By that time Beast Boy had flown in the form of a Frigate Bird over Red Hood. Then he changed from the fast flying bird and into the form of a triceratops, landing in front of Red Hood.

Beast Boy then charged forward with his three devastating horns aimed at Red Hood. But Hood only jumped up and landed on Beast Boy's triceratops head, holding onto to horns to steady himself.

Beast Boy thrashed his head about to shake Hood off, but Hood was staying put and held onto the horns tighter.

Starfire circled above and contemplated firing, but feared hitting her green friend.

"Yippee-Ki-Yay.", Red Hood said as he removed a few darts from his belt and stabbed them into the side of Beast Boy's head, injecting tranquilizer from the dart's internal reservoir and into the changeling's blood.

Hood jumped off Beast Boy's head just as the green Titan thrashed about trying to remove the darts. Then he changed back into a human with the darts sticking out of his head just behind his ears. He stood woozy and tripped over his own two feet.

"Beast Boy!", Starfire yelled.

"Get Hood. I'll help him.", Raven, having recovered from the kick, said as she flew past Starfire. Raven flew to Beast Boy and removed the darts with her powers, then attempted to use her healing powers to cure Beast Boy of whatever poison or tranquilizer Hood injected into him.

Starfire fired starbolts at Red Hood and flew towards him. Hood narrowly dodge them then threw a few small round spheres towards her. The round spheres exploded and sent green gas and blinding powders into Starfire's face.

Before Red Hood could make another move, Robin kicked him hard from behind and sent the new villain to the floor. Hood quickly rolled and recovered as Robin attacked with another kick. Hood jumped up over the kick and almost made contact with Robin's head with a kick of his own.

He landed then jumped back.

Robin withdrew his staff from his belt and extended it. "I don't know who you are… But you made a big mistake tonight."

"Is that so?" Red Hood reached into his jacket.

Robin lunched forward and swung his staff wide. Red Hood lunched forward and swung his arm out of his jacket with the knife in hand.

_Slash!_

The two had now switched places somewhat, their backs turned to each other, and were both quiet as half of Robin's staff landed on the ground after Hood had slashed it off.

Robin blinked a few times and realized that the knife was no ordinary knife.

Hood threw a freeze-bomb at Robin's feet and it detonated, encasing Robin's legs in thick ice.

Robin quickly took out a bird-a-rang and attempted to chip away at the ice as Red Hood ran off to fight other opponents.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Raven ascended high in the air and suddenly a few of the many crates in the warehouse was wrapped in black energy and propelled towards Red Hood like missiles.

Red Hood ran near the wall of the warehouse; running, diving, and rolling to avoid crates which exploded into splinters as they hit the wall. After Raven had run out of crates to throw, Red Hood quickly climbed a latter up to the catwalks above, where he continued to run.

Raven rose into the air and she held out her hands as parts of the catwalk were suddenly engulfed in black energy. Red Hood had to kick it into high gear and run as she uprooted and tore apart the catwalk behind him, destruction nipping at Hood's heels.

Soon Hood was running towards the part of the catwalk that was just over Raven, and he jumped onto the railing as she completely tossed aside a huge section of the catwalk with her powers. He jumped off the railing and fell feet first towards her.

Reacting quickly, Raven swung her arm up and formed part of a black bubble to shield her. And sure enough Red Hood landed feet first with a loud stomp on her energy shield. Then he dived forward and behind her, where she was exposed because the bubble had only protected in front and above her.

Raven turned her head with wide eyes just as Red Hood threw some round capsules in mid-fall. The capsules impacted against the inside of her energy bubble, just in front of her, and released thick and powerful knock-out gas.

She lost consciousness instantly and fell, her energy bubble fading like a forgotten memory.

While both her and Hood fell, he reached into his jacket with his left hand and withdrew a grapnel gun designed in a pistol shape. He fired and the grapnel anchored to the ceiling. Then he caught Raven by the end of her cloak just as the line went taunt, and he swung with the grapnel pistol in his left hand and Raven's limp body hanging by her cloak from his other hand.

Cyborg helped Beast Boy up off the ground as the green changeling recovered from the affects of Hood's darts.

"You okay, man?", Cyborg asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine just as soon as- AGH!", he said then screamed.

Raven's unconscious form impaled Beast Boy. Then immediately afterwards Red Hood swung into Cyborg, hitting the half-mechanical Titan with both feet. Then Hood kicked off of and away from Cyborg's chest and flipped backwards in the air. All three Titans involved fell to the ground and Hood landed on his feet.

Red Hood retracted his line, put away his grapnel pistol in his jacket, and turned around to spot his next opponent.

That's when Starfire hit him with twin blasts from her bright green eyes, and sent Red Hood soaring across the warehouse. The jacket-clad man rolled across the floor of the warehouse and then skidded to a slow stop near a wall.

Red Hood tried to get up, but then grabbed his sides in pain and fell to his knees, moaning and doubling over.

Starfire flew up, bright green balls of energy in her hands, and hovered just over Red Hood. "Are you… Are you hurt?", she said, honestly concerned for the well being of her enemy.

Red Hood didn't reply, but sunk closer to the ground with a gritty moan of agony.

Starfire powered down and the starbolts in her hands disappeared. She slowly glided closer to him, her big green eyes filled with concern.

Red Hood looked up from his doubled over position and stared at her. "Gotcha."

Before she could make sense of this, he sprung his trap.

He quickly straitened up and aimed a miniature net-launcher clutched tightly in his hand at her. He withdrew it from his belt while he pretended to double over in pain.

She gasped and he fired.

Starfire was wrapped in a net made of thin, flexible, and strong metal cables. She yelped shortly as a powerful electric charge from the net surged into her. When the short but powerful charge died, she fell unconscious to the ground with a thump.

"Starfire!", Robin yelled as he broke the last of the ice around his feet away.

Springing to his feet, Red Hood put away his net-launcher, picked up Starfire, and threw her over his shoulder. The turned on his heel and ran for the large closed doors at the entrance of the warehouse.

Robin, finally free of the ice around his cold feet, took off like a torpedo and ran after Hood.

But Red Hood stopped just before the doors and faced Robin. "Sorry, show's over.", he said as he pulled a detonator out of his jacket. He pressed the red button on the detonator.

Suddenly, two crates on the catwalks, near the wall and directly above Hood, came to life. The lids popped up and a machine gun rose from within, lifted then held up by mechanical and hydraulics mechanisms. The computer-guided guns targeted each of the remaining Titans, and opened fire.

Luckily, the guns were loaded with rubber pegs instead of bullet; a non-lethal, but certainly a painful deterrent.

Robin stopped cold in his tracks and held up his cape to protect him. His cape caught the pegs and shook as it absorbed the force of each impact.

Cyborg quickly turned his back to the guns and protected Beast Boy and the sleeping Raven behind his metal bulk. The rubber pegs bounced harmlessly off his chassis but prevented him from moving.

The guns continued to repeatedly fire, unleashing a never ending hailstorm that held each of the Teen Titans hostage.

"Starfire!", Robin yelled as he peeked out from his cape for just a moment.

Red Hood had already opened the large warehouse doors and proceeded to run out with Starfire over his shoulder like a piece of luggage.

"Starfire!", he yelled again as he withdrew a birdarang. He took another quick glance at the automatic machine guns, then threw the birdarang.

It flew and arched towards one of the guns, and hit it's barrel. The gun swung, still firing, and fired upon the other gun. The second gun was soon unable to accurately target the Titans with a constant barrage of rubber pegs hitting it. 

Robin quickly withdrew two explosive disks from his belt and threw one at each gun.

The disks hit the guns and exploded, destroying the automated weapons.

Robin quickly threw his cape back behind him, scattering scores of rubber pegs on the ground, and continued his pursuit of Red Hood and Starfire.

Outside the warehouse, Red Hood had just placed Starfire securely in the back of a van and closed the back doors. Having already heard the explosion of his automated guns, he glanced over his shoulder and saw Robin emerge from the warehouse and run towards him.

"Persistent!", Red Hood exclaimed, perhaps admiring a worthy opponent. He held up a second detonator with a long antenna, and pressed the red button on that detonator too.

Suddenly a parked beat up car on one side, and a dumpster on the other side, were engulfed in a blast as bombs planted under them exploded. 

Robin skidded to a stop and shielded himself with his cape from the twin blasts as the remains of the car and the dumpster were scattered, their flames rising and blocking off Robin's chase with a literal wall of fire.

Hood allowed himself a moment of smug satisfaction because the twin explosions had worked to block him off perfectly. But that wouldn't hold him long so he rushed into the driver seat of the van, and sped off.

The flames burned high. Accelerants must have been used to ensure a strong firewall.

But that was of no concern to Robin. He jumped through the sold wall of fire, the cape wrapped around his arms and head to protect him from the fire.

Once he landed, he tossed his cape back behind him. His eyes were narrow and his teeth were gritted. But the only sign left of Red Hood was the faint sound of screeching tires off in the distance. And soon that sound was gone too.

Robin stared onwards at nothing in particular. His only movement was the rise and fall of his chest from his heavy breathing.

Soon Beast Boy, in the form of a large pterodactyl, carried Cyborg with his talons over the wall of fire. In Cyborg's one good arm he safely held Raven. Beast Boy flew down and set Cyborg next to Robin, releasing his talon's grip on Cyborg's shoulders. Then Beast Boy changed back to his human form and landed next to Cyborg.

"Where's Starfire? What happened?", Cyborg asked.

Robin turn around. "Hood got away with her! We have to find her! Raven!"

"Still out cold.", Cyborg said as he adjusted his grip on the unconscious girl. "She'll be out for a while." He paused, his voice in its calm yet serious tone. "She can't help us right now."

"Beast Boy! Track them!", Robin ordered.

Beast Boy nodded and changed into a bloodhound. But just as he took a single sniff of the air, he yelped and whined. He changed back into his human form and held his ears. "Ow ow ow ow!"

"What is it?", Robin demanded.

Cyborg looked at the cracked display on his damaged arm. "Some kinda high-pitched frequency. Only dogs and other animals can hear it. BB, and every other dog near by, is gonna have a headache."

Robin's eyes widened a little. "What about her communicator?"

Cyborg looked back to the display on his arm as he attempted to track the signal from Starfire's communicator. "No good, either. I think it's being jammed somehow."

"Beast Boy? Can't you fly and spot them from above?"

Beast Boy moaned at the idea and he continued to hold his sore ears.

"Robin…", Cyborg began. "By now, they're long gone."

Robin was quiet for a moment. Only the sound the gentle crackle of the flames behind them burning could be heard.

Red Hood had thought of everything.

Everything.

And now he had Starfire.

-Under The Hood-

It was quiet, dark, and cold. But Starfire rested on the metal floor anyway. Eventually, she stirred in her sleep and slowly opened her eyes.

Then she quickly sat up with a gasp.

She was in a large energy cage of some sort; a wall of energy with a light blue tint ran around the outside of the cage. Only a mere four bars, spread evenly around the circular prison, connected the cage's roof above her to the floor below her.

The large circular cage was on one side of an old room with wooden floors and fading plain wallpaper. On the other side of the room were two tables with various instruments and tools cluttered about. Between the two tables was a closed door. The only window in the room was closed and shutters blinded out any light or sign of the outside world. An old lamp or two provided a faint light to illuminate the room.

Starfire wasted no time. Her first reaction was to reach for her communicator, but found to her startle that it was gone. Then she spotted it, partially disassembled, on one of the tables that were cluttered with tools and parts.

She sprung to her feet and hurled a starbolt strait at the energy wall, but the only reaction was a slash of green light from the dissipating bolt. She stood back and unleashed a barrage of starbolts aimed at the same section of wall, one bolt after enough in rapid succession and she gave a short yell of effort with each starbolt she threw. But the wall of light blue energy stood as strong as ever, so her eyes glowed bright green and she fired a constant beam of pure energy from her eyes.

"Hey. Hey!"

Hearing the voice, she stopped her futile attack and turned to the source of the voice.

Red Hood was standing in the threshold of the now open door, leaning against the doorframe with his arms casually crossed. She hadn't even heard him enter.

"Don't bother. That cage will actually absorb all the starbolts you throw at it and use them to power itself. Cool huh?" He stood strait, uncrossed his arms, and walked over to her. "Oh, and don't try to overload it with energy or something like that. I've got bleed off systems on that cage for energy overloads."

"You! You are the Red Hood we fought in the warehouse!"

"And the lady wins a prize.", he said. "Yeah, that's me."

"Why have you imprisoned me?", she demanded, her glowing eyes slowly powered down but her temper didn't. "What are you going to do?"

"Isn't it obvious?", he said as he walked over to a table with tools cluttered over it. He picked up a thin pen-like device and turned back to her with the device at his eye level. He activated the device and it sparked at its tip. The arches of electricity faintly lit the face of his red metal mask menacingly. "I'm going to see what makes you tick…"

"Eep!"

Red Hood chuckled. "I'm kidding." He laughed to himself as he poked the sparking end of the device to demonstrate its harmlessness. He tossed it carelessly back onto the table. 

She blinked a few times in mild confusion.

"Don't you just hate it when that happens? Whenever a bad guy catches you, the first thing he tries to do is experiment on you or make you his girlfriend." He gasped in a mocking manner. "Or worse yet… Leave you alone in an elaborate death trap!"

"So… You are not going to eat my glorfkas and dissect my third stomach so you may hang it on your wall?", she asked innocently.

Red Hood raised one eyebrow wide and looked at her strangely. After a moment, he shrugged it off. "Aliens…", he muttered to himself. "No, I'm not going to do… Um… What you just said."

"Then why have you imprisoned me? What do you plan to do with me?"

"Sell you."

She didn't react at first, only blinked a few times. "I believe the phrase I should say is… What?"

Red Hood laughed to himself and leaned against the other table.

"What do you mean?", she asked again as she gently rose into the air and floated mere inches over the cage's cold metal floor.

"Think about it. You're a Teen Titan. You got enemies. Rich enemies. Connected enemies. And I'm sure anyone of them would pay pretty handsomely to have you in their hands. See where I'm going with this?"

"You intend to sell me to one of my enemies?", she asked.

"Well, more accurately, I'm auctioning you off to whichever enemy has the biggest wallet."

Starfire was a quiet for a moment.

"Now pipe down for a minuet, will ya?", he said as he picked up a phone. The phone was connected to a laptop computer and various electronic devoices via a snake's nest of cluttered wires. "I gotta make a call."

-Under The Hood-

"Sir?", Mr. Li asked Black Mask.

"Yes?" Black Mask sat at his desk in his office, placed discretely in some tall office building somewhere in Jump City. A large window was directly behind and beheld a brilliant view of Jump City's fellow skyscrapers.

"Remember that bad penny I mentioned to you?", he said while holding a cell phone. One hand covered the phones mic to prevent the caller from hearing.

"Which one?"

"The South Side one."

"Yeah. What about him?"

"He's on the phone."

1 minuet and 36 seconds later.

"YOU'VE GOT WHO LOCKED UP WHERE!", Black Mask shouted into the phone, that Mr. Li handed him, as he jumped out of his chair and stood.

Red Hood was on the other line, and back in the room where Starfire was kept prisoner, he continued to lean against a table. It perplexed Starfire how his posture and demeanor could be so nonchalant when talking to the biggest crime lord in Jump City.

"You heard me.", Red Hood said. "And try not to yell, will ya? Remember this is a ten-way call. Me and eight other people on the line would like to keep our hearing."

"Got that right.", Aquista said. He was the only major crime lord left who did not pay up to Black Mask in some way. He ran his own little piece of independent territory in Jump City's North side.

Six of the other seven criminals on the phone ran their own territory but paid their tribute to Black Mask. The seventh paid to Aquista. They all agreed with Red Hood and Aquista about Black Mask's volume, but didn't speak.

"Alright, alright. Fine.", Black Mask said as he sat back in his office chair. "So… You captured Starfire, huh?"

"That's right.", Red Hood answered.

"How are we supposed to know you're telling the truth?", one of Black Mask's lieutenants asked.

"You want proof?", Red Hood asked as he looked at Starfire, who was practically boiling over with aggravation in her cage. "I'll give ya proof." He held up the phone and pointed the receiver in Starfire's direction. "Say hello, Starfire."

"YOU ARE ALL A HERD OF GEYPHORIAN NARN-NARKS!", she yelled. Then she proceeded to yell more alien curses in such a loud and high pitched tone that it seemed to her listens as one loud annoying squeal.

Aquista winced in pain at the sound of it. Black Mask held the phone far away from his head. Red Hood covered one side of his metal mask over his ear as if that would protect his eardrums. Everyone else on the phone had similar reactions of pain and discomfort.

Finally when Starfire had finished, she stood and gently exhaled and inhaled to return her breath to her. It was somewhat surprising to see the sweetest of the Titans so angry. But then again, it wasn't so surprising when you consider that she met the Teen Titans because she was almost sold off by a bunch of reptilian aliens. She probably wasn't thrilled with the concept of being sold.

Red Hood waited a moment before he let go of his ear and put the phone back up to his face. "Need more proof?"

They all shouted "No!" or some other phrase to that effect.

"No! No, that's okay. We believe ya.", Black Mask said as he massaged his sinuses just above his nose. "Look, let's keep this simple… Red Hood was it?"

"Yeah.", Hood replied.

"How much do you want for her?"

"Black Mask… Or should I call you Mr. Mask? What about Blackie?"

Black Mask kept his lack of amusement in check. "Black Mask will be fine, thank you.", he said dryly.

"Right. Listen, Black Mask, there's a reason I called you _and_ everyone else here on the phone.", Red Hood began. "I'm putting her on auction. And you're all invited."

"Hood, I'll give you five hundred thousand to drop the auction and hand her over right now.", Aquista offered.

"Cram it, Aquista. Hood, I'll give you six hundred thousand.", Black Mask said.

"Six fifty.", Aquista replied.

"Seven. And I don't use your tongue as a neck tie.", Black Mask said.

The other crime lords on the phone began adding their comments and bid their amounts.

"Hey! Hey, people!", Red Hood shouted till he had gotten everyone's attention. "The auction is tomorrow. Got that? Tomorrow. Not now."

"Forget that.", Black Mask said. "I'm not going to waist my time by standing around with a bunch of brain donors and organ sacks."

"Ya know, Mask, that's not a very good start to a potential business relationship.", Hood told him.

"Yeah? Well I have anger management issues. I abate the urge by hitting people who annoy me.", Mask told him.

"Fair enough.", Hood admitted. "But you're still coming to the auction along with everyone else. If you want her that is."

"What's the point?", Aquista asked. "Me and Black Mask are the only people in this city who don't pay up to someone. Oh, and you, Hood. Either me or Mask will win."

"Yeah, I'll win.", Black Mask added quickly.

Aquista ignored that. "So why invite everyone else here?", he asked Red Hood.

"Because three's a crowd, but ten's a party.", Red Hood said. "Bottom line: The auction is tomorrow. In person. Got a problem with that, then don't come.

"Alright. When and where?", another crime lord asked him.

"I'll call all of you again tomorrow with a time and location. So keep your check books ready and your good shoes polished."

"Fine.", Black Mask asked grumblingly.

"Agreed.", Aquista said, taking pride in the fact the he was obviously more civil then Black Mask.

The rest of the crime lords agreed.

"Great. I'll see all you gentlemen tomorrow. Till then, good night and happy bidding." Red Hood hung up the phone.

The rest of the crime lords all hung up as well one at a time.

Red Hood felt like patting himself on the back; that went considerably well. He turned around and glanced at Starfire.

She gave him a distinct "Humph!" and turned away from him, still floating inches over the cold metal floor.

"What's your problem?"

She didn't answer.

"Come on. You're not gonna give me the silent treatment, are ya?", Hood asked, suppressing a slight chuckle or two to himself.

"If you must know…", she said as she looked at him over her shoulder. "I am saddened by what seems to be my fate, and I am concerned for my friends.", she said with an angry look, and then turned away from him again. "Something you most likely do not have many of…", she muttered to herself.

Red Hood was silent for a moment and leaned on the table again.

She didn't move.

"I lied, ya know."

She looked over her shoulder again. "Excuse me?" She was still angry and it could be heard in her voice.

"I lied.", he simply stated. "I'm not really gonna sell you."

She stared at him questioning, then she turned around and faced him as her anger gave way to inquisitiveness. "Then why did you tell them that you were going to auction me off?"

"Because I wanted them to think I would."

Her only reaction was to blink. "You… Continue to perplex me."

"Look, here's the deal." He stepped forward to her. "I start to auction you off. I take the winner's money. And just before I can hand you over, your cage 'malfunctions' and you magically escape. Who knows, maybe the rest of the Titans will show up around then too. I run off with the money and you and your friends get to capture the city's worst crime lords all at once." He threw up his arms. "Everbody wins!", he exclaimed. "Oh, except for the bad guys. But they never win."

"So… You actually do not intend to sell me at all?", her anger had ebbed away and was now replaced with curiousness and hope.

"No."

"Are you telling the truth?"

"Scout's honor." He paused. "Um, that means, yes.", he explained. "You'll be free to go. _And_ catch all the bad guys you want too. Promise."

"Excellent! I am not to be bartered!", she exclaimed in joy and jumped higher in the air. Then she proceeded to spin around in the air like a spinning top with her legs pulled up in childlike glee. She even giggled.

It almost amazed Red Hood how innocent and easily pleased the affectionate girl was. He laughed to himself.

"Wait…" She stopped spinning and faced him while floating in the air. "Why did you not tell me this before? Why did you have me believe I was doomed to be sold to my enemies?", she asked.

"I needed you to give a convincing performance. Good job on the phone back there, by the way."

She chuckled weakly and rubbed the back of her head. "Um… Yes. Then…", she paused. "I apologize for my temper earlier…"

"No big deal."

"Please, can you release me from this cage now?" She poked at the energy wall, which painfully sparked and she withdrew her finger.

"Sorry, babe. Can't do that."

"But why not?", she said with a slight pout that would melt anyone's heart.

Almost anyone. "Because then you might try to run off on me.", Red Hood answered.

"What if I were to promise I would not?", she asked hopefully.

"Sorry, still to risky."

"Could I at least call my friends and let them know I have come to no harm?"

"Can't let ya do that either. No way to contact them without letting them know where we are or ruining the plan."

She nodded slowly but sadly. "Yes… I understand."

"Relax. You'll see them tomorrow. Promise.", he said, trying to comfort his hostage.

"You do?"

"Yeah. Now I'm going to bed before things get too mushy around here. At this rate we'll be singing Koom Bye Ya", he said. "You hungry? Because I got a TV dinner or two if you want it."

"No thank you. I have not the appetite."

"Suit yourself.", he shrugged. "There's a sleeping bag behind you, by the way."

Starfire looked behind her and noticed the rolled up sleeping bag she hadn't noticed. "Oh. Thank you."

"Sure." He turned and walked to the door. "Night.", he said over his shoulder.

"Good night.", she said.

He flicked a switch on the wall, and the lamps turned off and left her in the cozy darkness of night.

She waited for a moment and listened, but heard nothing.

Then she unrolled her sleeping bag and laid upside down on it.

It took her a while to fall asleep, but eventually she shut her weary green eyes… And fell fast asleep.

………………………………………………………………………………...

Author's Note: Well, that ended up being longer then I expected. I'll try to keep the chapters a tad shorter from now on. The keyword there is "try".


	3. Supply Side Economics

The next evening.

Starfire looked around her curiously.

Her and her captor, the Red Hood, were in a large warehouse by the docks. Hood had earlier constructed a makeshift stage against the far wall, and covered it with a nice large black tarp for showmanship's sake. Starfire was still in her energy cage, of course, and the cage had been placed at center rear stage.

Starfire wondered what the stage they stood on was constructed of. Probably crates from around the warehouse or reinforced tables.

She watched Red Hood go about his work of setting up a podium off on the forward right side of the stage. After his podium was set up, he began looking around with focused eyes. He was double checking everything in his mind, making sure he hadn't forgotten the tiniest of details.

Starfire watched him work with a curious sort of interest. It reminded her of Robin, who often silently focused on his thoughts too.

Red Hood continued to look around, as if his gaze pierced the thin walls of the warehouse. He turned to Starfire when he felt her gentle stare. "Bored?"

"A little."

"Eh, don't blame ya." He reached into his jacket and pulled out a cell phone. "But the good news is, things are about to get exciting."

"You are to call the lords of crime now and inform them of this location?"

"Yep.", he said as he dialed his phone. "Then we can get this party started.", he said as he held the phone up to the side of his metal mask.

-Under The Hood-

"Titans, report.", Robin demanded as the three remaining Teen Titans entered the tower's main living room. Robin himself remained seated at his computer terminal and only spun his chair around to look at them.

"Nothing so far, Robin.", Raven said.

"What about the south side? That's Red Hood's territory, isn't it?", Robin asked.

"We searched that area high and low.", Cyborg said. "Nobody knows anything about Red Hood. They don't even know where his headquarters is. They just know to follow orders and pay up when he shows up."

"I couldn't even pick up her scent…", Beast Boy whined.

"What about you? You got any leads?", Cyborg asked.

"Not much.", Robin said. He turned his chair around and typed away at his computer terminal. "Couldn't trace the explosives he used. No luck with the van either. I went over the warehouse for evidence again an hour ago."

"Find anything?", Raven said as she levitated her way towards Robin and then hovered just behind his shoulder.

"No forensics. The smoke bombs he used were all home made."

"What about those machine guns?", Cyborg asked as he stepped up towards Robin's other shoulder.

"All the registration numbers on any part of the guns were removed. Even on the mechanical arms that moved the guns. He covered his tracks."

"But can't you lift the imprint from registration numbers off of guns?", Cyborg asked, recalling an old episode of some forensic crime drama.

Robin shook his head. "No. He completely cut out the sections with the numbers and replaced them."

"What about the computer systems that controlled them?", Raven asked.

Then Robin handed her a circuit board that was blackened and charred.

She was somewhat surprised, and took the crisply burnt circuit board. She began to examine it carefully.

"The computers erased themselves, then a self destruct system burnt the circuits to a crisp.", Robin explained. "Any data on it has been completely destroyed. I checked."

"Whoa.", Raven said quietly to herself, and handed the circuit board to Beast Boy.

"What about Hood himself? Find anything about the guy?", Cyborg asked.

"No.", Robin said as he lowered his head.

"I got it!", Beast Boy exclaimed.

Robin, Raven, and Cyborg all turned around and looked at Beast Boy.

"It's obvious…", Beast Boy said. "Red Hood is a mechanical android constructed by aliens from Alpha Centaury, and he kidnapped Starfire so he could probe her brain for information about advanced alien weaponry in order to finally conquer the Polaris System!"

…

Robin, Raven, and Cyborg all turned around and looked away from Beast Boy.

Then the three began to discuss other sane theories.

-Under The Hood-

Two hours later.

Gathering the largest crime lords in the city all under one roof so they could bid a financial war over a member of the Teen Titans. Easy.

Getting them to stand patiently like civilized people and wait for the auction to begin. Impossible.

Red Hood leaned against this podium and rested his head in his gloved hand. He signed like a babysitter who had lost track of the kids and now let them run rabid throughout the house.

"They are… Most disorganized and impatient, yes?", Starfire asked.

"Tell me about it…", Hood said.

"Perhaps we should take solace in the fact that the Mumbo Jumbo is keeping them entertained?", she suggested.

"Yeah... Entertaining them like children…", he noted.

Eight of the city's biggest crime lords, including Black Mask and Aquista, were gathered in the warehouse. The ninth one was yet to arrive, but called and assured that he would be there shortly. But those other eight crime lords had quickly growing testy and impatient.

Red Hood had instructed that they must come alone, with the exception of a single bodyguard per crime lord. Black Mask had brought along Mumbo Jumbo has his bodyguard.

Luckily, the malevolent magician couldn't resist the chance to entertain an audience, even if it was an audience of other crime lords. So he began to entertain everyone with a sort of magic show.

Red Hood watched dully as Mumbo Jumbo made an elephant disappear.

At first Red Hood was a tad apprehensive about having a supervillian in the midst of this auction. But if it kept everyone busy and happy, Red Hood was happy to have Mumbo around. So long as he didn't become a problem.

Black Mask was not enjoying the festivities his bodyguard was giving the audience, but was as happy as Red Hood was to have idiots silenced. He stood with his arms crossed away from the crowd gathered around Mumbo. His assistant, Mr. Li, stood behind him.

Starfire giggled. "I forgot how glorious the magic of the Mumbo Jumbo could be when they were not used for perpetrating crime.", she told Hood.

"Yeah. I'll give him that much." He looked back at her over his shoulder as he leaned on the podium. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be miserable?"

"Oh! Yes.", she said, then began to brood and seethe.

Red Hood slapped his face with his hand and shook his head at her over-acting.

"Something's wrong.", Black Mask said to Mr. Li. "Look at her.", he referred to Starfire. "She's much too giggly for someone who's about to be sold up the river… Literally."

"Hmm…", Mr. Li mused.

"Hey!", Red Hood shouted to Black Mask. "I thought I told everyone they could only bring one body guard. Who's the Chinese guy?"

"Mr. Li is my assistant. He goes where I go.", Mask said.

"I told everyone-", Red Hood said, but was interrupted.

The warehouse's large doors opened and the last crime lord stepped in. He was a Russian man and his bodyguard was a tall Russian woman with long scarlet red hair.

"Hey! Welcome to the club!", Red Hood shouted at him from across the warehouse with raised hands. "Now we can get this thing started!"

"Apologizes for my tardiness.", the Russian man said. "Let us begin this auction."

"About time.", Black Mask said.

"Aww…", Mumbo Jumbo said as he clutched a white tarp that was draped over some box. "And I was just about to make someone disappear."

"Play time's over, magician. You'll have plenty of time to practice your magic tricks later.", Black Mask said.

Mumbo snapped his fingers with a mumble, and all his magic tricks and props vanished in a large poof of smoke.

The crime lords and bodyguards all approached the stage.

"Okay, everyone!", Red Hood said enthusiastically, clutching the corners of the podium. "First up is item number one, the lovely Starfire."

Starfire gave a mean look to the heartless crime lords, and then turned away from them with her chin held up.

"Testy.", Red Hood commented. "Bidding starts at one million." He slammed an auctioneer's hammer on the podium.

-Under The Hood-

"Raven, status report.", Robin said over the communicator.

Raven was flying high above Red Hood's territory in the south side. She held her communicator and spoke into it. "Nothing yet, Robin. Still looking."

"Good. This is Red Hood's territory, there's bound to be some clue near by, so keep your eyes open.", he said.

"Right. Raven out.", Raven cut the communication and continued to fly off.

She passed over the shadow-bathed rooftop of a small hotel and continued to fly off into the distance.

After she was gone, Gizmo, Mammoth, and Jinx stepped out from their hiding places in the shadow.

"Phew… That was close.", Mammoth said.

"Too close.", Gizmo agreed.

"Yeah, I know. But just keep your cool a bit longer.", she said, knowing well that her partners in crime were growing impatient. "All we gotta do is wait for Hood's signal just a bit longer. Then we can have fun.", she said with a slight smirk. Then she turned around and looked out towards one direction to watch for any other approaching members of the Teen Titans.

Gizmo nudged Mammoth's arm and said, "Guess we know whose pocket she's in."

A pink splash of light lit over a steam pipe on the rooftop, causing it to spring a large leak and sprayed hot steam at Gizmo.

"Agh! Hot!", Gizmo yelped.

Jinx smirked without turning around to look at him.

-Under The Hood-

"Four million, six hundred thousand!"

"Five million!"

"Five million and one!"

Finally the auction was going as planned. Well, close enough anyway.

Black Mask crossed his arms and boiled. He seemed infuriated by merely being in the presence of these lesser beings. "Five and a half million.", he bid.

"Five and three quarters of a million!"

"Zip it, Lenny!", Black Mask said to the crime lord who worked for him. "Six million."

"Six million and two hundred thousand.", another said.

"Six and three.", Black Mask said.

"Six and a half million.", Aquista shouted happily.

"That's it…" Black Mask pushed his way through the crowd, walked to the stage with long strides, and put a single foot up on the stage and stared Red Hood strait in the eyes. "Cut the garbage, Hood! We both know we're waiting our time with these taxidermy subjects waiting to happen!"

"Hey, ya know what?", Hood said.

"What?", Mask asked.

"It's not my fault you're head looks like a potato I left in the oven a few hours too long while I feel asleep on the couch one day.", Red Hood said.

Everyone went quiet. Then, slowly, they started to snicker to themselves.

Black Mask glared deeply at Red Hood and envisioned what the inside of his skull must look like.

"Now get off my stage.", Red Hood said sternly, returning the glare.

Everyone returned to their silence.

Even Starfire was quiet.

No one had given Black Mask and order. Not even Mr. Li.

Black Mask's fists were clenched tightly and his knuckles white. He gritted his teeth together. "Ten million… And the promise that I won't gut you alive tonight."

"Hmm…" Red Hood looked up to the rest of the small crowd. "Can anyone beat ten million and the promise not to gut me?"

It was quiet for a moment.

"I can promise not to throw you off the bridge?", someone from the very back said.

Red Hood ignored that. "Ten million from Mr. Potato Head. Going once."

Black Mask took his foot off the stage and crossed his arms. He grinned satisfied.

"Going twice."

Starfire observed nervously.

"Sold!" Red Hood slammed the hammer down on the podium's table.

"Eat that, Aquista!", Black Mask said.

"Now fork over the money.", Red Hood said.

"Believe it or not, I don't walk around with ten million dollars in a brief case.", Black Mask said.

"Well you got one hour to get a brief case with ten million dollars. Or the auction starts again.", Red Hood said.

Starfire hoped Red Hood's plan was going according to plan.

Or even that she could trust his plan.

-Under The Hood-

Fourty Five minuets later.

"Alright, I got it!", Black Mask said as he reentered the warehouse while waving around a brief case. "Now hand over the bimbo!"

Red Hood still stood at his podium, leaning against it. He hadn't left the podium since the first crime lord arrived. "Let's see it."

Black Mask walked up and opened the brief case for Red Hood to see. It was packed with money, just like Hood wanted it.

"Well, ain't that beautiful?", Red Hood said.

Starfire was getting increasingly nervous but kept quiet. Then she noticed that behind Hood's back he was holding her communicator in a way so that she, and only she, could see it.

"Guess this mean's our business is over.", Red Hood said as he pressed the button that activated it.

Starfire watched, trying to hold back a sense of relief and glee, as Red Hood pressed another button that sent out an S.O.S. to the rest of the Titans.

-Under The Hood-

Titans Tower.

Robin sat at the same computer he'd been sitting in all night and gently sipped some hot chocolate to keep him awake.

Suddenly an alarm sounded and glanced over at the computer screen as he drank his hot chocolate.

Alarms never surprised the Boy Wonder, who was always ready for action, but this alarm in particular made him almost spit out his hot chocolate.

The communication systems had picked up Starfire's communicator giving off an emergency homing signal.

Robin set aside his mug of hut chocolate carelessly and watched as the computer began homing in on Starfire's exact location.

He smiled, and then picked up his own communicator.

-Under The Hood-

Starfire had begun blasting against her cage's energy wall again, just as Red Hood had told her to do when he was about to receive the money. She was yelling and blasting with all her Tamaranian might.

"Hey, shouldn't you sedate her or something?", Black Mask said.

"I wouldn't worry about it.", Red Hood said as he jumped down from the stage. "I had a professional build that thing. Now hand over the money."

"Be glad to…", Black Mask said pleasantly.

_BLAST!  
_

The rest of the crime lords, who were all still there, watched Starfire's furious new assault against the energy wall with caution and concern.

_BLAST!_

Red Hood took the brief case. Then he whispered something.

"What was that?", Black Mask asked?

_BLAST!_

"I said…", Red Hood began.

_BLAST!_

"Sucker…", Red Hood said.

Suddenly Starfire's cage began to spark and smoke! And the energy wall disappeared.

Red Hood kept his word!

Starfire gave off a short battle cry and levitated out of the cage with brightly glowing green balls of energy in her hands and fiercely green glowing eyes.

"You! It was a trap!", Black Masked yelled.

"Hey! What can I say?", Red Hood shrugged. "They just don't make energy cages like they used to!"

"Stop her!"

"She's you're problem now. Later!", Red Hood then turned around and ran off.

"You! Mumbo! Get her!"

"Allakhazam!" The blue magician held out his hands and seemingly endless lengths of rope made of scarves and clothe shot forth from his sleeves and tied around Starfire. And with a wave of his magic wand, Mumbo made a steel cage appear around Starfire. "Got ya!" He looked at his watch. "Hmm, not bad timing.", he critiqued himself.

Starfire's eyes grew brighter.

Mumbo raised a curious eyebrow.

"YAH!", she yelled as powerful blaster of energy shot from her eyes, between the bars of the cage, through the warehouse, and strait at Mumbo.

Mumbo was sent flying across the warehouse, pushed by twin beams of energy, and hit the thin metal wall of the warehouse with enough force to dent it.

Mumbo stuck to the wall for a moment with dizzy eyes. "Lucky shot…" Then he slowly peeled off the wall and fell to the floor.

"Come! Let us make haste!", the Russian man said to his bodyguard.

Then part of the roof near the corner exploded. When the dust and smoke from the explosion settled… The Teen Titans were standing beyond the gaping hole.

"Robin!", Starfire shouted with glee as she struggled against Mumbo's colorful ropes.

"Starfire!", Robin said as a sense of relief washed through him and the rest of his team. "Titans! Go!" Robin launched his grapnel, and swung towards Starfire as the rest of the Titans descended into the midst of the crime lords.

That's when it all broke loose.

Blaster fire and yells were heard all around the warehouse as the crime lords and their bodyguards began to defend against the Titans.

Mr. Li ran to a door and tried desperately to open it, but it was locked just like all the other doors he tried. "Mask! It's locked! They're all locked!" He looked around for his employer. "Sir?"

Red Hood ran through the midst of the battle, firing whoever came near with a double-barreled blaster rifle in one hand and clutching the brief case's handle with the other hand.

"You!", Black Mask said as he cut off Hood's path. "You swindled me!"

"Really? Is that so? I'll be more careful next time.", Red Hood said as he skid to a stop and raised his rifle towards Mask.

Suddenly the rifle was knocked from his grip by a well aimed bird-a-rang.

Robin landed on the cold concrete floor and retracted his grapnel. "Freeze you two!"

"Na ah!", Back Mask said as he ran off.

Deciding a supervillian like Hood was more dangerous then Black Mask, but not by much, Robin launched his grapnel around with the intent of it wrapping around Hood and tying him up.

But Red Hood held out the brief case and the grapnel hit the metal case and anchored to it.

"Give it up, Hood! It's over! You're not getting away with that money!", Robin yelled.

"Robin… Do you really think I would've gone though all this trouble…" Red Hood pressed the clasps of the brief case with his other hand. "…for six inches of Chinese newspaper?"

The brief case fell open with a slight jar, and the money fell away to the floor followed by clippings of newspaper. Only the top layer had been money.

One of the oldest tricks in the Mafia Book.

Red Hood then threw the brief case at Robin and then ran off back into the heat of the battle.

Robin dodged the case easily then ran after Hood into the battle, but soon lost him.

Outside, the doorknob of the warehouse's back door was blown away with a well-aimed blast, and Red Hood ran out into the alleyway while holding one of his blaster pistols.

He ran off down the alleyway between warehouses and reached into his jacket to pull out his own communicator. "Jinx! Jinx!", he shouted into it.

"Yeah! I'm here.", she responded.

"This is the signal. Go to work, you guys. You know your targets."

"You got it, boss!" In the background, Red Hood could hear Gizmo and Mammoth's shouts of enthusiasm to finally have some fun.

"Hood, out.", he said as he put the comlink back in his jacket and continued to run off into the night.

Soon afterwards Black Mask and Mr. Li darted out of the same door and ran in a different direction.

Black Mask sprinted ahead but soon Mr. Li caught up to him.

"You're quick.", Black Mask told him between huffs and puffs.

"I take a spinning class three times a week.", Mr. Li said as he ran.

"It works for you."

"No kidding."

-Under The Hood-

Suddenly a car was thrown through the wall of a big house. The lieutenant crime lord who owned the house backed up as Mammoth stepped through the giant whole he had just made.

Mammoth had a toothy grin and said, "Surprise."

Across town.

Another lieutenant of a different crime lord cowered on the floor in his bedroom as Gizmo rose above him on rebuilt spider-legs.

"Sorry, snot-brain. You're barf-chewing boss ain't coming back from that auction. He's going to jail.", Gizmo said.

Elsewhere.

Bodyguards fired away. Suddenly pink sparks flew over their guns and caused them to mysteriously jammed and quit responding when the trigger was pulled. The lieutenant of a crime lord, who the bodyguards were protecting, stood among the guards and was baffled over his gun's sudden malfunction.

Jinx continued to calmly walk up to them, her eyes glowing pink and pink arches of energy cascaded over her gently raised hands and nimble fingers. "Guess who you work for now.", she said with a smirk.

The other side of town.

Red Hood kicked yet another lackey across the room then turned around to backfist another, as if he simple sensed their presence. Then he spun around and kicked the last enemy into the wall. Then, Red Hood calmly turned around and walked over to the crime lord whose house Red Hood had broken into.

"Hi, nice to meet ya. I'll give you a short introduction.", Red Hood said as he loomed over the frightened crime lord.

"I'm Red Hood, and you work for me now."

-Under The Hood-

It was a quiet car ride home.

Cyborg drove as usual, and Beast Boy sat in the front passenger seat. Starfire sat in the backseat between Robin and Raven. Robin stayed near her to comfort her.

She had already told the Titans all that had happened. She told them how she had been sleeping when Hood transported her to the warehouse, so she had no idea where his secret base was located.

They had already caught all the villains and criminals at the warehouse, save for Black Mask, his assistant, Aquista, and the Red Hood. The battle over, the police soon came and arrested the criminals.

Now it was just a nice and quiet car ride home. Starfire was tired but quiet content to be around her friends again.

-Under The Hood-

Black Mask leaned back in the plush seat of his limo and closed his eyes. "What a waste of time…", he commented.

"What!", Mr. Li exclaimed into a cell phone he was talking to.

Black Mask opened one eye. "What now?"

"Uh… Sir… I have some bad news for you…"

-Under The Hood-

The Titans all entered the main room of Titans Tower, which had long since become a bethel to the teenage heroes.

"Hey!", Beast Boy said. "Even if a few got away, we just nabbed some of the biggest mafia baddies in the city! I say this calls for a celebration!"

Cyborg chuckled. "In the morning. Now it's bedtime.", he said with a warm smile.

He walked over to a computer terminal, and extended a data probe from his right finger and inserted it into a port on the console. "Just checking to see if there's anything new before bed."

"Good idea.", Robin said, still hovering near Starfire. They turned and he began to walk her to her bedroom, as protective and chivalrous as Robin always was.

"Uh oh.", Cyborg said to himself aloud.

Robin and Starfire stopped and looked back.

Cyborg withdrew his data probe from the computer and turned around. "Robin, you may wanna look at this.", he pointed to the computer terminal's screen.

Robin was quiet for moment, then walked over to the terminal.

Cyborg stepped aside and Robin stepped up to the screen and examined it.

The rest of the Teen Titans stood still and waited to hear what the problem was.

"What?", Robin said in disbelief.

"What is it?", Raven asked.

"It's Eddie.", Robin said. "One of my eyes and ears on the street." He paused as he read the message on the computer screen. "East Town County is under Red Hood's control."

"Huh?", Beast Boy said.

"Hang on…", Robin said. He began typing away at the computer terminal. "There's more…"

"What is it?", Cyborg asked.

"More reports.", Robin said as he skimmed over data on the screen.

Beast Boy whined. "Man… The suspense is killing me! What is it!"

Robin typed away and the large monitor built into the window displayed a map of Jump City. Robin punched a few more keys with his fingertips and suddenly the map of the city was highlighted in shades of red, black, and blue.

Black represented Black Mask's territory, which covered for the vast majority of the city.

Red was Red Hood's territory, which occupied a tiny corner in the south end of the city, by the docks.

Blue was Aquista's territory, which was the northern-most ten-percent of the city near private airports.

Then Robin typed more furiously at the computer. "All my informants are saying the same thing…" He looked up at the map. "Red Hood controls a third of the city." He pressed one last final button.

Then, one section of the city at a time, turned from black to red.

All the Titans watched as the red territory grew and grew, consuming the black. And when it was all done…

A third of the city was red.

Starfire stared. "I do not understand… How could this have happened?"

"Yeah, Star's right.", Cyborg said. "How'd he'd manage to claim all that territory so fast?"

"Don't you get it?", Robin said as he turned around and faced his friends. "The auction was a fake. A decoy."

"A decoy?", Raven asked.

"It was never about the money. Red Hood even knew the case was a dud! He was after the territory. So he gathered major figures in the city's organized crime…", Robin explained.

Raven interrupted him. "And had us fight them for him. Then he took their territory while our backs were turned."

"He tricked us into doing his dirty work.", Cyborg said with a hint of malice.

"Man…!", Beast Boy whined. "You're kidding me!"

"We… have been duped?", Starfire asked.

Robin nodded slowly. "Yeah… He tricked us. And now he controls a third of the city's organized crime."

He turned his head and looked at the map behind him.

"And we helped him.", he said.


	4. Markup

One week later.

Mammoth and Gizmo were content to play video games and get to know their new team mates, SeeMore and Private HIVE. They all sat on the couch in their secret headquarters with video game controls in hand.

"Hey! I see you coming.", said SeeMore, the chocolate skinned Cyclops.

"Ah, but I shall defeat you yet!", said Private HIVE.

"Hey! There goes my life points!", Mammoth shouted.

"Agh! Now it's just me against these two scuz-wads?", Gizmo complained to Mammoth.

Jinx strolled into the common room, a clip board and pen in her hand. She signed in a frustrated manner. "Hey! You were supposed to be cleaning the kitchen.", she said.

"I did.", SeeMore said.

"Did you use soap?"

"Uh…"

Jinx rubbed her sinuses. "Remind again what you two are doing here again…"

"Hood hired them to join the team. Said he didn't want us to get stretched too thin guarding all his new territory.", Gizmo answered. "Cool! Turbo!", he said, commenting on the video game.

"I know why they're here… I meant- Agh, just forget it.", Jinx said. "Now come on. Hood's gonna be here any minuet, and you don't want him to see you laying around like this."

"Pfft. Teacher's pet.", Gizmo commented under his breath.

"Maybe she's right.", Private HIVE said. "This headquarters is a disgrace. Mine was the only bed I could bounce a quarter off of."

Mammoth paused the game. "You bounced quarters on our beds?"

"Finally, someone agrees with me.", Jinx said. "Now come on!" She walked around the couch to stand between them in the TV screen displaying their video game. "We need to get a few more things done around here before-"

"Before what? That Red Hood is just a…", Gizmo looked aside and subconsciously tapped his finger against his chin in thought as he searched for the right piece of pseudo profanity to use. "Just a…"

"Just a what?", Red Hood said as he leaned down and spoke just behind Gizmo's head.

"AGH!", Gizmo jumped from his seat on the couch and clung to a ceiling lamp.

The rest of the group had similarly shocked reactions, except for Jinx, who saw him approach but said nothing. In fact, half the reason she stepped in front of them was to draw their attention to her and allow Red Hood a better chance at his stealthy entrance. She hoped he noticed that.

"No, go on. Say it. Scuz-muncher? Barf-Brain?", Red Hood said casually as he looked up at Gizmo.

Gizmo chuckled nervously. "I meant to say 'great boss.'"

"I thought so.", Red Hood said presently. Then he looked away from Gizmo and surveyed the rest of the group and the headquarters. "Hey, everyone. How's the new H.I.V.E. Five getting along?"

"Uh…", was the collective reply. The members of the H.I.V.E. Five all looked uncomfortably at each other.

"Yeah. First impressions are always awkward.", he said as he walked around the couch, grabbed Gizmo off the ceiling with one arm without looking at him, and threw him back onto the couch.

"Umph!", Gizmo said upon impact with the cushions.

"You'll get used to each other.", he said as he walked up to Jinx. "Jinx. Tell me… How's business?"

Jinx looked down at her clipboard. "Well, the AK Gunner Gang down by 5th street have joined us, giving us control of two more blocks."

"Good to hear.", he said impartially.

"But they're a little worried about Black Mask.", she said.

"Well that's not a problem." He turned to the others, who still sat on the couch. "Mammoth, Private HIVE, why don't you go down there and give them some peace of mind. Let them know they're in good hands on my team."

"Sir, yes sir!", Private HIVE shouted as he rose from his seat, saluted Red Hood, and ran off. Mammoth followed him with a grunt.

Hood turned back to Jinx. "I like that new guy.", he said as he pointed with his thumb to the direction he had gone.

Jinx glanced back at her clipboard. "All other business going according to normal. Oh, except one thing. There's a dispute between two of our gangs over territory."

"I know all about it.", Red Hood stated.

"Oh.", Jinx said.

"And I came her to get you to help me settle it."

"You did?", she asked.

"Yes." He turned around and walked to an open elevator across the room. "Tell both gangs to meet us at the abandoned drive-through theater in Morse County at ten o'clock." He stepped in the elevator and pressed a button. "Tell them if I hear one complaint about it from them, they'll wake up tomorrow and find their lungs on the other side of town."

The elevator doors closed.

-Under The Hood-

The rest of the Titans were concerned.

Robin had been sitting at the computer terminal, leaning back in his chair and resting his chin on his interlaced fingers, for nearly fifteen minuets now. He seemed to stare up at his reflection in the large window above the terminal, or perhaps rather it was the city beyond his reflection that he was gazing at.

He had emerged from his room to use the computer terminal, and after retrieving the information from it, reclined in his seat to think. He was obviously still brooding over Red Hood using him and his team as puppets.

The rest of the Teen Titans had one by one gathered behind him.

"Robin?", Cyborg asked, finally breaking the long silence. "You okay? Anything we can do?"

"Yeah…", Robin said without taking his eyes away from his reflection. "Catch Red Hood."

-Under The Hood-

Red Hood waited in shadows on the other side of the drive-in movie theaters old projector screen. Soon Jinx arrived and walked to him.

"Everyone's here.", she reported. "Jimmy "Bedrock" Hanson wanted to know what this was about, so I told him to keep his mouth shut and listen for you."

"Ya know what I like about you, Jinx?", he said.

Jinx blinked a few times in confusion and surprise. "What?"

"You're ambitious, and smart. And by that, I mean you're ambitious enough to get the job done and smart enough not to be stupid." His eyes narrowed into a piercing glare. "Am I right?"

"Um… Yeah, I guess", she said, still bewildered.

"Good. Because if you ever got _too_ ambitious… I'd gut you and leave you to dry out on the docks like a fish." He walked past her and set a paternal hand on her shoulder. "And I'd hate to do that, wouldn't I?"

"Red Hood… Is there a problem?", she asked, still confused and a little nervous.

"Nope. Not a one.", he said as he began to walk off. "Just stating it for the record. Keep up the good work, Jinx." He turned a corner walked around the projector screen.

"Um… Right.", she said before following.

Hood walked around to the front of the projector, eyeing the large crowd of gang members that had gathered. They were all bickering and arguing, seemingly on the brink of starting a fight. Hood shook his head in contempt for them, and climbed on top of a car that had been parked just in front of the projector.

With his elevated plain of view, Red Hood hoped to convey a sense of authority and get their attention. "Hey!"

They didn't noticed.

Jinx climbed up onto the car with him, but stood on it's trunk rather then next to Hood on the roof. "Here.", she said as she handed him a loudspeaker.

Red Hood nodded and took the device, then yelled into it. "HEY!", his voice boomed.

They noticed and the majority quit their bickering.

"Yeah, that's right. Stop the fighting and listen up.", Hood said, his voice amplified and carried over his audience's heads. "I hear there's a problem here."

"Got that right, Hood!", said a young man dressed in red and a black do-rag. "Those stupid idiots over there are trying to muscle in on our turf, dawg!"

A young man from the opposing gang, dressed in blue and white, seemed to take offence. "Dude, you full of-"

"Hey hey hey!", Red Hood said to break them up. "Look, I know both of you guys want the same territory, which is like only a measly block. But you're forgetting one very important fact.", he said.

"What 'dat?", the man in red asked.

"I don't care!", Red Hood answered. "I don't care which one of you controls that block. You both work for me, I'll still get the same amount of tribute at the end of the day." He paused. "I'm here to solve a _different _problem."

"A what?", the man in blue asked.

"Zack!", Red Hood shouted to a man dressed in blue next to the first man in blue.

Yeah?", Zack asked. Zack was a largely built dark man with a reputation of not being nice.

"I hear you've been selling to shorties. You know kids are against the rules."

"Pfft. Just some pep club kids from Mikamura High. Those kids eat the stuff up like candy."

"I made it perfectly clear… No kids.", Hood warned menacingly.

Zack said nothing, but glared back at Red Hood.

"Zack, is that your car over there? The white one with blue Japanese markings?", Hood referred to a silver car with metallic blue Japanese symbols painted on the hood.

"Yeah? What of it?", Zack said in a way that somehow confirmed that he was extremely arrogant.

"Jinx…? Would you?", Hood asked delicately yet firmly.

Jinx smirked. "I'd love to." Then she dove off the car, and began to cartwheel herself into the crowd. Everyone moved aside as she gracefully cart wheeled and flipped her way to the car.

Then she landed on her feet a good distance in front of the car, raised her hands, and smirked deliciously. Her eyes glowed bright pink and arcs of pink energy danced over her fingertips. Then she lowered her hands and unleashed a wave of hexes at the car.

"Hey!", Zack yelled.

The car immediately began to fall victim to Jinx's hexes, with one misfortune after another.

The paint began to peel. The tires suddenly blew. The car alarm started going off. The windows shattered. The airbags deployed. The suspension fell. The horn began to constantly blare. The trunk and engine hood popped open. The radio began to play music until the over sized speakers blew with a wave of sparks. The upholstery ripped. The airbags popped like balloons. The engine shook as bolts suddenly unscrewed or broke. The metal began to rust at an accelerated pass. The windshield wiper fluid dispenser sprayed like a fountain. The lights blared and blinked on and off. The horn continued to blare.

Zack watched in horror.

Jinx was enjoying herself, and continued her constant wave of hexes.

Then the car exploded. The magnificent and bright explosion engulfed the car in flames and lifted its rusting hulk high into the air. And then the car landed front first into the ground. It fell back onto its four crooked and flat tires, it's front end completely smashed and mangled.

Jinx slowly powered down, satisfied at the destruction, and watched as the high flames engulfed and incinerated anything that was left of the car. She then looked behind her at Red Hood and gleefully said, "Done."

Zack was pale and his jaw dropped.

"Next person to mess with kids…", Red Hood began over the loudspeaker. "Will be _in_ the car when that happens. Got it?"

Other gang members laughed at Zack's misfortune.

"Good." Red Hood lowered his loudspeaker and stepped off the car.

Jinx ran to catch up with Red Hood.

Her and Red Hood walked off, leaving behind the gang members and one obliterated excuse of a car.

"Nice job back there, by the way.", he said.

Jinx smiled, assured now that she was in fact in his good fortune.

-Under The Hood-

Raven flew over the city, parallel with the heights of many of the city's skyscrapers. She wasn't looking for anything in particular, but was merely on patrol. Also, she felt leaving the Tower and getting some fresh air would clear her head.

Then again, how fresh could the air from a city like this be?

And so, with her hood pulled around her face and her clock wrapped around her, making her a flowing blue missile, she sailed high above the streets. She began to get lost in her thoughts and musings.

Elsewhere.

"Ah! No!", cried a middle aged man with a protruding gut and a slow metabolism. He crawled on his back away from the intruder who had entered his condominium.

Red Hood.

"You're one of Black Mask's suppliers.", Red Hood said. "You've been arranging for arms shipments from Intergang dealers in Metropolis, haven't you?"

"What? No! No!", the man replied.

"Yes! Admit it!", Red Hood said with a gritty tone.

"Alright, yes! Yes, I'm Black Mask's Intergang connection!", he admitted.

Red Hood slowly walked closer and loomed over the man. He spoke with a steady but threatening tone. "You got two choices. Supply me and tell me everything you know about Black Mask's operations… Or you can try flying." He pointed to a large window in the man's condominium.

"I can't! You have no idea what Black Mask would do to me!"

"I'm here, he isn't." Red Hood leaned closer. "And I'm worse…"

Outside, Raven gently soared.

She listened to the sound of the people below her. The mixture of shouts, car noises, and general chatter all sounded like one coherent mumble to her.

She passed one condominium building. And just as she did, she heard the distinct sound of thick glass shattering.

She instantly came to a stop high above the streets and snapped her head back to look. She had done so just in time to see the man Red Hood had been interrogating falling out of the window, a ballad of shattered glass around him.

She also so Red Hood standing just beyond the broken window.

He gave her a friendly wave, as if they had been friends for years. Then he pointed down.

Raven snapped her attention downwards, and darted after the falling man. She opened her cloak and held out her hand.

Suddenly a wave of black energy appeared around the man and wrapped around him.

Raven slowed both of their descents simultaneously and proceeded to gently fall towards the ground. She levitated overhead while she used her powers to gently set the poor man on the ground. The energy around him disappeared, and he fell to his knees while shaking.

A crowd of by-standers was gathering.

Raven glanced at him quickly to make sure he was okay, and then flew strait upwards quickly. Around her hands formed orbs of black energy. She was ready for any kind of fight.

Rising strait up at high speeds, she soon reached the window Red Hood had thrown the man from. But to her disappointment, Red Hood was gone already.

She stared ahead into the dark condominium and searched in vein for any trace of Red Hood.

She allowed herself the faintest of moans and a sigh. Robin was not going to like hearing this.

-Under The Hood-

An apartment building was on fire. It was located in the seediest and meanest part of Red Hood's newest territory, and firefighters were just now arriving to combat the flames. Residents had all long since evacuated and stood outside.

All save one. A little girl.

Beast Boy, in the form of a falcon, soared towards the burning building at top speeds. He flapped his wings and landed on the rooftop of the building across from the inferno.

He transformed into a human again, and observed the scene. He saw that a firefighter with a megaphone was trying to encourage someone inside the burning building to jump out the window and onto a safety trampoline that was held by half a dozen other firefighters.

Someone was still in there.

Beast Boy continued to watch carefully, and from his vantage point, could see inside a window of the building.

It was a little girl trapped inside. Far too frightened to approach the window, much less jump out of it. She kneeled in the middle of a room, scared, and refused to leave the spot.

Hero time. Scared as he was of the fire, he knew this was the simplest and purest part of being a hero. The best part too.

Smoke from the fire was too thick above the building for Beast Boy to safely find a spot on the roof to land, so he decided it'd be best to transform into a bat. He dived off the building and transformed, then flapped his green leathery wings towards the building and strait into the smoke above it.

Inside, the little girl continued to cry softly and look around. The building around her was beginning to crumble as a result of the fire eating away at the wooden supports.

She was far too frightened to go near the window because of little embers of flame that danced around it. Her young minded didn't quite understand that she would be okay if she jumped, all she knew was that embers of the scary fire danced far to close to the window for her to approach.

She wrapped her arms around herself and looked around for any way to escape certain doom.

"Hello! Any one there!", Beast Boy called out.

"HELP! I'M OVER HERE!"

"Stay put, I'm coming!" In another part of the building, Beast Boy transformed into a beagle dog, and sniffed the air. Among the scents of burning wood and the thick must of smoke, he managed to pick up her scent.

She was close.

"HURRY!", the terrified girl said. She looked around even more frantic then before, wondering where Beast Boy's voice had come from. She thought of her mommy, and where she could be.

Suddenly, a giant green gorilla crashed through a wall with a mighty roar.

The little girl screamed loudly, until Beast Boy transformed back into a human and announced himself.

"Shh! It's okay! It's me! Beast Boy!", he said quickly. "I'm gonna get you out of here, okay?", he said as he approached her with open arms.

She eagerly jumped into his arms and he held the little girl in his thin arms tightly.

Suddenly the roof began to collapse, and Beast Boy dived out of the way with the little girl just in time to avoid an engulfed pile of wood.

Beast Boy found himself secretly thanking Robin once again for all the training he put each member of the Teen Titans through despite their obvious powers. Reflex training had just saved both his and the little girl's life.

With a slight grunt, he rose to his feet with the little girl on the floor next to him, but saw to his horror that the burning pile of wood that fell had landed next to the window. They couldn't escape that way.

It was hot. Very very hot. Beast Boy was beginning to sweat.

The green changeling was beginning to consider double tracking and flying out the same way he had come in, but could he manage it with the little girl?

He heard a cracking noise. It was louder then the constant cracking of fire all around him. It was the distinct crack of wood being broken into pieces by a powerful blow. It came from above him.

He looked up though a hole in the ceiling and saw a figure jump down.

"Robin!", he said.

"Wrong!", the familiar voice of the figure said.

Then Red Hood landed right next to him.

"Agh!", he squealed with such shock. But before he could make a single other move, Red Hood did something very peculiar.

He took off his jacket.

He moved quickly but with a different sort of energy. Without his jacket on, Beast Boy could clearly make out a shoulder holster that held his pistol grapnel gun and his knife.

Red Hood rushed toward the little girl, and wrapped her in his blanket. "Here.", he said. "This is a magic jacket that'll keep the fire from hurting you. Just don't touch any of the stuff inside.", he instructed.

She nodded and clutched the jacket around her.

"WHOA WHOA WHOA!", Beast Boy said. "Aren't you a bad guy!", Beast Boy asked frantically.

Red Hood began looking around with focused and analyzing eyes. He spotted a weak section of wall a few floors down through a large hole in the floor.

Beast Boy was a little surprised how slim Red Hood really was underneath that jacket that made him seem so broad and powerful. "Hey! Are you listening to me?"

"Can you transform into an armadillo?", he asked.

Beast Boy blinked a few times. "Uh… Yeah."

"Good." Red Hood suddenly grabbed the green changeling, shifted his feet, and flipped him full force down the hole in the floor and towards the weak wood.

"Agh!", Beast Boy squeaked just before rolling up and transforming into an armadillo. He smashed strait through the pieces of weak wood, and outside of the building he transformed into a sparrow and made a safe landing on the ground next to the building.

Red Hood gently picked up the little girl in his arms, holding the jacket tighter around her.

"I'm scared.", she told him.

"Don't be.", he replied.

Then he sprinted and jumped through the hole in the floor. He landed on a burning support beam, the fire licking and stroking his boots. He jumped from that perch, rebounded off a wall, and landed on a platform of unsteady boards that were also engulfed with flames.

The little girl hid her face deep into his chest as the fire reached his legs and thighs. But the Nomex and Kevlar weaves of Red Hood's costume proved impenetrable to the fire. Still, that didn't make standing in fire comfortable.

Red Hood felt the wood beginning to crack and give way, so he quickly bounded away from it. The wood crumbled from the force of his footsteps.

He made one last jump, and grabbed the edge of the hole Beast Boy had made with one hand. He hung from that grasp on the hole, more flames and rising smoke below his dangling feet.

The little girl yelped and completely cocooned herself in his jacket.

"BEAST BOY!", he yelled out.

Outside, Beast Boy had been attention for any sign of them, and his ears instantly perked up. "YEAH!", he yelled back to reply.

"CATCH US!", Red Hood grunted as he lifted himself up to the hole with the use of one arm and his two feet to kick off the hot wall. With another groan of exertion, Red Hood heaved himself and the little girl into the hole in the wall. He glanced at Beast Boy, nodded, and leaned over the edge and fell through the hole.

Beast Boy transformed into a giant gorilla again, and jumped as high as he could into the air.

He caught Red Hood and the girl in his powerful but soft and furry arms while in mid air.

They fell back to the ground, and Beast Boy's powerful gorilla legs easily allowed them to land safely. Upon landing, Red Hood immediately ejected himself from Beast Boy's grasp and landed safely just forward of the colossal green beast. He opened up the jacket and the little girl emerged with a daze.

Then upon spotting her mommy she immediately forgot all about Red Hood and Beast Boy and ran strait to her mother. Her mother held her tightly and continued to cry, clutching her daughter tightly. They both cried in each other arms.

Beast Boy transformed into his human form and smiled proudly next to Red Hood as they both gazed at the little girl and her mother.

"Kinda touching, huh?", Hood asked.

"Yeah…", Beast Boy said.

After a moment of solace silence, Hood put his jacket back on with a slight swing, then ran his fingers down it to straiten it. "Well, take care." He turned around and began to walk off down the street and away from the burning building.

"Hey! Wait a minuet!", Beast Boy said as he turned to give chase to Red Hood, leaving the firefighters to do their job and combat that flames.

Beast Boy soon caught up to Red Hood, and Hood turned half way around and stared at him.

"What?", Hood asked.

"Aren't you supposed to be a bad guy?", Beast Boy said as he screeched to a stop.

"I guess you could say so."

"Then why did you just do that?", he asked with a softer and more childlike tone. "Why'd you help?"

"Because this is my territory." He turned completely around and stared him down. "And this is my city. I gotta take care of it. Otherwise… What kinda of land lord would I be?", he said with a jovial tone at the end.

Beast Boy blinked.

"Besides… She was a kid.", Hood turned around and began walking off. "So try to catch me if you think you're up to it. Otherwise… Scram. You got more important hero-things to do." Hood turned down and alleyway and walked out of sight.

"Wait!", Beast Boy ran to the mouth of the alleyway and peered down it, but saw no Red Hood.

He stared quietly with his mouth hanging slightly open.


	5. Nash Equilibrium

Days later, late at night.

"Thus-far tonight's patrol of the city shows nothing of concern.", Starfire reported into her communicator as she soared high over Jump City.

Miles away, deep inside Titans Tower, Cyborg and Beast Boy stood at the computer terminals. Starfire's image, capture by her communicator's camera, was displayed on the large window monitor.

"Did you check out that possible lead on Bay Side Street?", Cyborg asked her.

"No, but I intend to next after one last sweep of the south side area.", she said.

"Be careful, Star.", Cyborg said. "Robin would kick my right servo-actuator if Hood nabbed you again."

"I am doubtful he would attempt a second abduction, but I shall be on the guard.", she said. "Starfire out." Her image on the giant window monitor faded away and suddenly the city was clearly visible past the window.

Beast Boy yawned. It was late and he was tired.

Cyborg turned to him with a somewhat softer and jovial expression on the organic half of his face. "Hey, why don't you go hit the hay, man? I'll stay up and make sure nothing goes wrong."

"Nah… I'll be fine.", Beast Boy admitted. Then he chuckled and held up a big grin with twin thumbs up. "Just a few sips of my new _Revved Up_ energy drink and I'll be good to go!"

Cyborg chuckled. "Ya know that stuff can't be good for you.", Cyborg said as he began to walk away from the computer terminals and towards a corridor.

Beast Boy followed Cyborg down the corridor. "But it's awesome!"

"Probably just liquid sugar mixed with a little bit more sugar, dude.", Cyborg stated as he and Beast Boy entered the corridor.

"Hey, I don't need to know what kind of space age technology they put in that stuff. So long as it gives me the energy of twelve of me.", he said as he strode beside Cyborg.

"Yeah, until the low hits you and then suddenly you're down for the count."

Beast Boy was about to speak again, when suddenly they both tensed up and gasped in pain. Electricity surged through Beast Boy's small and malleable body and cruelly conducted into Cyborg's metal frame.

When the charge died, they both fell to the cold metal floor unconscious. Cyborg crashed with a loud bang when he fell.

They both laid on the floor unconscious. Small darts extruded from their backs, and a thin wire was attached to each dart. The thin wires led from the inert heroes and down the corridor behind them.

_I guess I should feel kinda bad about that._, though an intruder who hid past the entrance of the corridor, holding a modified air-taser pistol. The wires from the darts in their backs trailed up into the taser. _Oh well._

Elsewhere inside the Tower.

Raven slept peacefully in her bed, laying on her side and clutching the loose sheets around her.

_I'll give her something to make sure she sleeps through the next six hours._

The intruder quietly approached from behind her without making a sound. In his hand he held a small cylindrical capsule, which he held up near the sleeping girl's face. A small press of a button, and the capsule began to gently spray a misty gas into Raven's face.

She breathed in the gas, filling her lungs with it, and retreated into an even deeper sleep then before.

_And I hope, for once, she has a good dream._

The intruder put away the empty capsule and gently tucked her in before disappearing again into the shadows.

Later, elsewhere in the Tower.

Robin stood in a corridor and gazed out the giant window. He stared at Jump City. His city. Correction, the Titan's city.

He held his communicator to the side of head and continued to speak into it. "No, Bumble Bee, I haven't seen Steamroller in Jump City. But I'll keep an eye out for him."

_Starfire's out on a patrol, following a false lead I set up. Another decoy. Raven, Cyborg, and Beast Boy have all been sent to bed early tonight._

"I'm not to familiar with Steel City's criminals, but I'll help in anyway I can. Good. Okay."

_Perfect time to have a little chat with Robin._

"Robin out." Robin disconnected the communication and put away his communicator.

"Funny thing about us villains.", Red Hood said.

Robin spun around quickly, his cape whipped to the side.

"We're territorial." Red Hood leaned casually against the corridor wall with his arms crossed.

"Red Hood…", Robin snarled. "How'd you get inside the Tower?"

"I jimmied the door open.", Hood joked. As if Titans Tower was as easy to break into as a convenience store.

Robin glared with a stiff lip and balled his fists. The superhero side of him was already taking over, calculating the situation and evaluating strengths and weaknesses.

Red Hood stood strait, no long leaning on the wall, and uncrossed his arms.

Robin broke the short silence. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to have a little chat with you." Hood returned Robin's glare. "Time to see which one of us has the nerves to really clean up this city."

"What?"

"You heard me right, Birdy." Suddenly Red Hood lunged at Robin and tackled him into the glass window. The windows, strong enough to withstand an air strike, felt like concrete to Robin as he was rammed into it.

Hood grabbed Robin by his tunic's chest, leaned back, and threw the jarred hero over his shoulder and to the floor.

Robin fell to the floor with little damage, and quickly withdrew his staff. "Titans! Hood's here! TITANS!", he shouted.

"Don't bother. They're all asleep." Hood held up his hand. "Just you and me." He beckoned Robin closer with a gesture of his hand.

Robin growled and dived towards Hood with a mighty swing of his staff.

Red Hood stepped back to avoid the staff and it crashed into the metal wall with a loud clang.

Then Robin held the outstretched staff and stabbed it forwards repeatedly like a spear, hoping to trust its end into Hood.

Hood continued to slap away and dodge it best he could. Then he grabbed the staff, pulled it and Robin closer, and kicked Robin's wrist hard enough to make the Boy Wonder release his grip.

With the staff awkwardly in his control, Red Hood stabbed its other end into Robin's side. Robin gasped in pain, then retreated backwards while holding his side.

"So you came here just to fight?", Robin asked with a slight grimace.

"Among other things.", Hood answered.

From holding his side, Robin reached into his belt and launched a bird-a-rang strait towards Red Hood.

Red Hood batted the weapon away with a powerful swing of the staff. "Ha! Easy!" The wayward bird-a-rang embedded itself in the ceiling.

Red Hood rushed forward with the staff tightly in his grip.

-Under The Hood-

"UMPH!", Robin crashed through metal doors as they broke from their mountings and then he rolled on the ground to a stop. He had regained control of his staff, which he clutched tightly in his hands, but the price for that was getting close enough to Red Hood to be kicked across the room.

Robin picked himself up from the floor with a grown and Red Hood stepped into the doorway.

"Missing this?", Hood held up one of Robin's bird-a-rangs, and threw it full force at him.

Robin threw himself back against a wall and blocked the bird-a-rang with his staff while protecting his face from a ricochet by holding up his cape with his other hand.

Red Hood jumped into the air to deliver a drop kick, but Robin dived away at the last moment and released several smoke bombs. Hood was suddenly being swallowed by a thick cloud of smoke, and quickly darted away before Robin could attack.

They both stood for a moment, staring each other down.

Red Hood's jacket was victim to a few scuffmarks and a lucky bird-a-rang had scratched his metal mask. "So… Still think you got what it takes to clean up this city?"

"Clean it up? You can't honestly think you're the hero here."

"Oh, but I do.", Red Hood said as he and Robin began to circle each other.

"Hero's don't run a third of the city's crime.", Robin stated.

"Wake up and smell the roses.", Hood said. "It's not like your method is that great either." Suddenly he reached into his jacket and withdrew his blasters.

He begun firing as Robin dived to the side and hid behind a large potted plant. "Yeah? And what's wrong about stopping criminals?"

"Please… You cause almost as much damage as you fix."

"We put criminals behind bars!", Robin said with a hint of a snarl. "You employ criminals! You're their leader! You're just another one of them."

"You don't get it, do you, kid?"

Suddenly a grenade landed next to Robin's feet, and the Boy Wonder darted away as it blew up.

Robin was thrown across the room again, and Red Hood emerged from his cover, blasters already tucked back inside his jacket. Red Hood ran towards Robin and grabbed him before he could recover from the concussion of the blast.

"You just don't get it, you spoiled brat!", Red Hood picked him up threw him into the wall.

Robin swung his staff and hit Red Hood squarely on the side of his metal mask. Hood's head wrenched to the side, and before he could recover Robin tackled him hard across the room.

The two crashed through another door, which swung open upon impact with Hood's back, and they fell into a stairway.

Hood hit the corner of the floor and wall with a grunt, and kicked Robin down the stairs by his stomach.

Robin rolled down the stairs but grabbed the railing before he could be seriously hurt.

"You…", Red Hood said slowly with spite as he rose from the ground. "You and your little friends… You wonder why there's so many criminals and supervillains in this city…" He rested for a moment, holding his side.

"What are you talking about?" Robin picked himself back up with a wince.

"You fight your giant monsters and save the city more times then anyone can count… How do you think it makes everyone else feel?" He began walking to Robin calmly down the steps, but with an angry tone in his voice. "How do you think it feels to have practical gods fight over our heads, in battles for reasons we can't begin to understand?"

Robin stood strait and darted forward to attack but Red Hood kicked him away. Robin fell back, grabbed the railing again, and slid and slumped his way down the rest of the stares before falling over himself on the floor below that flight of stares.

Hood continued to walk down the stares. "You're like greek gods to us. Sitting in your mighty tower, throwing starbolts and bird-a-rangs. Saving us from things we didn't even know _existed!_"

Red Hood stepped over Robin and took his staff from him. "No wonder there's so many supervillains! Being a supervillian is the only way one of us little guys can step into the big leagues. Can make a difference or be important. Can be apart of the huge battles over the fate of the city."

Robin's eyes opened a bit wider as he understood Red Hood's point.

"But don't get me wrong! We need you. We need someone like you to fight the giant monsters that tend to step on us. But don't expect to climb down from your Mount Olympus of a tower and still be able to understand the streets where we live."

Robin groaned as he tried to rise.

"You're place is in the clouds. My place is on the streets."

"Is… Is that why you think you're doing? You… You think you're saving the city somehow?" Suddenly Robin kicked Red Hood's knee, causing Hood to howl in pain, and sent him to the ground where he let go of the staff.

Robin lunged on top of Red Hood, but Hood punched him squarely in the jaw. Robin took the impact without complaint and batted away Hood's arm. "You think you're helping the city?! You think you're helping anyone?!"

"Yes.", Red Hood coldly said. "I do!", then Red Hood head-butted Robin with a ruthless blow from his metal mask.

Robin fell away, dizzy. Red Hood got up, hissing at his injured knee, and grabbed Robin by his cape. "I'm gonna clean up this city's streets…"

Red Hood stepped over Robin, opened the door to the adjacent level they were on, and dragged Robin by his cape on the ground through the door. "You're a foolhardy dreamer if you think you can do it from the tip top of your tower."

Red Hood dragged Robin across a corridor and entered a random room.

"Well what kind of room do we have here?", Hood said as he dragged Robin into the Titan's Trophy Room. "Is this where you keep your medals of honor? You've even got Control Freak's remote in here! Well one of them anyway… You think you're gonna display my knife in here one day?"

Silence.

"Huh?" Red Hood looked down at Robin.

Suddenly Robin threw a flash/bang grenade strait at Red Hood's head, and the bright flash ignited just in front of his face.

"Gah!", Red Hood closed his eyes instantly and let go of Robin, backing away with his hand covering his face.

"Why…" Robin rose from the ground and removed an exotic looking club from the wall, a souvenir from a trip to Tameran. "…do villains…" He turned with the club in hand. "…always monologue?!" He swung the club at the dazed Hood, and Red Hood collapsed from the blow to his back.

Hood growled in pain as he hit the floor. Dazed but not stupid, he expected another attack and rolled away just as Robin stabbed the end of the club into the ground. Blind but swill aware, Red Hood swung his leg up just as the club impacted the ground and kicked Robin in the face.

Robin dropped the exotic club and reeled backwards from the hit. He wasted no time though, knowing full well how dangerous his opponent was, and tackled Red Hood before he could completely get up from the ground.

Robin pushed Red Hood into a display case that presented one of Mad Mob's canes. The glass case shattered as Red Hood and Robin's combined mass impacted with it, and the cane's length poked uncomfortably into Red Hood's back.

Robin held Hood's jacket tight by the collar and Red Hood punched him hard enough to jar him. Hood pulled back his fist to punch again, but Robin caught the fist on its second attempt.

"You're wrong…", Robin spat from gritted teeth.

"Am I?"

"We will protect this city, and every city that needs our help. Every part of it!", Robin punched Hood, but felt the painful halt as his knuckles impacted the cold metal of Hood's mask. But Robin didn't care about the pain. "The skies! The streets!" He punched Hood again.

Hood grabbed both his fists and head-butted Robin with the strong metal of his mask again. And he butted him a second time. Then he was able to kick the dazed boy away.

They both held onto other displays and used them to pull up their weary bodies.

But before Red Hood could, Robin growled in rage and tackled him. Hood struggled to stay on his feet, but Robin jumped and kicked him in the face. Red Hood's head reeled to the side as Robin landed and dived to him, planting an uppercut to his gut.

Red Hood doubled over and uppercutted Robin's jaw hard. "Oh yeah…?", he asked, forcing breath into his lungs. "Well how great has your method been working so far!" Red Hood pushed Robin back and swung his fist in a wide left hook.

Robin dodged the left hook, and dived for an antique Morning Star on the wall, a spiked ball attacked by a chain to a handle, and swung at Red Hood.

Hood stepped backwards to dodge as the spiked iron ball shredded and shattered other displays in their trophy room.

Raven's puppet from the Puppet King. One of Slade's drone's masks. A special computer chip. A damaged piece of equipment from Adonis's suit. All the memories of past heroics fell to the ground among the shattered glass of their display cases.

"Enough!" Red Hood dodged again. "Time for the big guns!", he reached into his jacket just as Robin swung his morning star again, and withdrew his curving Kris Knife. He sliced the morning star's chain apart with one swing of the blade, and the spiked ball destroyed one of Mad Mob's automated attack statues.

Red Hood pressed forward and swung the tip of the blade so close to Robin that it sliced across his costume and left a giant tear from his neck to his right side.

Robin lunged backwards, half falling, and Hood quickly stabbed his knife into Robin's cape, pinning the fabric to the base of a broken display case.

Robin's eyes widened as the cape yanked at him, protesting against him. And Red Hood dived closer and punched Robin in the face.

"Still think you're such a great hero?!"

He kicked Robin in the stomach, and his cape ripped when it was pulled across the knife's blade. Free from his trapping, Robin fell on his back to the ground.

"Do you?!"

Red Hood instantly mounted Robin, sitting on his stomach, grabbed his collar and punched him. He raised his fist high over his head, ready for another strike.

Hood paused.

"Do you?", Red Hood whispered weakly.

"Yes...", Robin coldly said. "I do…" Robin was limp and weak.

Red Hood glared, and punched Robin one last time.

And Robin was knocked out. His face bruised and bloody and his costume was torn and scuffed.

Then Red Hood gripped the R insignia of his chest, clawing it, and ripped it off Robin's chest.

He paused a moment, catching his breath, and gently let go of Robin's collar. Red Hood stood over him, the R insignia clutched tightly in his hand.

Then Red Hood turned around and limped over to where his knife was stuck in the base of a display case. He jerked it out with a grunt, put it away in his jacket, and limped his way towards the Trophy Room's exit. His body was bruised, and his costume was also torn and scuffed.

_Kid's good. I'll admit that._, Red Hood thought to himself.

He stopped at the door way and looked back to Robin, who laid peacefully on the ground. "Put up some fight…", he said, the pain in his knee biting into the foreground of his mind.

_And he's got friends. Real friends._

Red Hood paused.

_Wonder what I would've been like if I had friends like his. _

Then he limped his way out of the room and out of sight.

_Would I be a better person?_

-Under The Hood-

"Robin! Robin can you hear me?" Starfire's shouting voice pieced the darkness of Robin's uneasy slumber.

The Boy Wonder opened his eyes slowly, seeing only a blur of color and shapes. Oranges and blues and a small bit of green against a darker background. He blinked as the blurs sharpened into shapes and images. Then he realized where he was again.

He still lay on the floor of the Trophy Room, but Starfire held him in her arms as she knelt down beside him. Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven towered over him.

"Hey! He woke up.", Beast Boy noted.

"What happened?", Cyborg asked, shocked at the amount of damage that had been done.

Robin groaned and spoke from his dry throat. "Red… Hood…" He cough and swallowed as his voice returned to him. He grunted once and repeated himself. "Red Hood… Came in… We fought." He held his sore head.

The remaining Titans were all shocked.

"Hood?! Here?!", Cyborg said.

"How'd he get in the Tower?", Raven asked.

"I told you he was an alien!", Beast Boy exclaimed.

"I… I could use some water.", Robin said.

Starfire nodded and picked up Robin's legs in her arms, and flew off with him. The other Titans followed as she carried him into the Tower's main room and set him down on the couch.

Raven approached with a cup of cold water in her delicate pale hand. She handed it to Starfire who then handed the cup to Robin. He gratefully gulped down the water and noticed how crisp and wonderful it felt going down his throat.

"You gonna be okay?", Cyborg asked concerned.

"Yeah… I've seen worse.", Robin reported as he handed the cup back to Starfire.

"What did Red Hood want?", Raven asked.

"I think…" Robin held his head again. "I think he just wanted to fight. Or talk. Or both." He removed his hand. "But… I think now I know what he's planning.", he said.

"You do?", Beast Boy asked.

"You know what the Red Hood is planning?", Starfire repeated.

"Yeah…" Robin forced himself to rise from the couch and walked over to the large window that overlooked Jump City.

He was quiet and held the rest of the Titans in a state of suspense.

"So what's he planning?", Cyborg asked.

"He's going..." He took in another labored breath past his bruised ribs and turned his head around to look over his shoulder. "He's going to take down Black Mask for us.", he said with a smirk.

………………………………………………………………………………...

Author's Note: I love reviews. I think my endorphins literally spike when I check my email and see new reviews for my fics. Thanks for the reviews so far.

Oh, and yes. The blue and red gang members from the last chapter were a direct reference to the Bloods and the Crips gangs. No, I do not favor one gang over the other. I hate them both equally.


	6. Forced Collateral

Static.

The TV screen attached to Red Hood's laptop and webcam displayed nothing on its screen but the white and black dots of pure static.

"Hello?", Red Hood asked.

"Hello? Is that you Red Hood? I can hear you, but I can't see you.", Mr. Aquista said over the TV's speakers.

"Hang on a second…" Red Hood tightened the connection on a few cables and kicked the TV.

Then the image of Henry Aquista was clear and visible on the TV screen, instead of perpetual static. He was sitting at his desk in his office on the other side of Jump City and he stared at his webcam and laptop, which displayed the images captured by Red Hood's own webcam atop his TV. Henry Aquista recoiled in his seat when he saw what Red Hood's webcam had to show him.

"Say hello to Daddy.", Red Hood said.

A young girl, a teenager only fifteen or sixteen years old, was tied to a simple wooden chair. She had deep black hair that was now somewhat uncombed. Her face and skin had a tanned color that made her delicate eyes all the more noticeable. Subtle trails of a fear tears were left on her cheeks after the teardrops fell from those moist yet delicate eyes.

She was beautiful even by a specific man's standards, much less the average man's. Her beauty had won her several friends at her high school, but the rumors of her father's occupation always scared any of those friends away from becoming truly close to her.

Her wrists were bond behind the chair's backrest and her legs were tied to the chair's legs. A single piece of duct tape covered her mouth and reduced any pleas to nothing but a loud mumble.

Her name was Darla Aquista. She was the daughter of Henry Aquista, one of Jump City's largest mafia figures.

At the current moment, Red Hood was just behind Darla's left side, wrapping his right arm around her from behind like a snake. In his right hand, he loosely held his Kris Knife to her neck.

"Darla!", Henry Aquista shouted.

Darla tried to reply, but the duct tape on her mouth muted her reply to nothing more then a mumbled cry.

Mr. Henry Aquista gritted his teeth. "Hood! What have you done to my daughter?!", he demanded.

"Relax, fat man. I haven't touched her yet. Promise.", Red Hood said.

Mr. Aquista growled to himself, then stared at Red Hood's image on his laptop's screen. "Alright, Hood… I get the idea. What do you want for her?"

"First…", Red Hood began. "Let me say that… Yeah, I know family is supposed to be off limits in times like these. I admit it, this is a low blow. I also admit that I broke one of my own rules by involving a kid in this little war of ours." Hood pointed the tip of his knife at Mr. Aquista's image on the TV screen. "That's why I've taken such good care of her, and why I'm gonna offer you a very nice deal."

"Yeah? And what is that?", Aquista said. The way he leaned his head forward allowed for a glare of light to reflect off his scalp past his thinning jet-black hair at the top of his head.

"You don't owe me a penny.", Red Hood said cheerfully. "You give me control of your territory. Give me control of your men and let me move my own men and merchandise in and out as I want. Otherwise, you can continue to run business as you have, and you wont have to kick up a single penny from me."

Aquista blinked a few times as he tried to calculate what exactly that deal would mean.

"In other words…", Red Hood said. "I just get to borrow a few of your soldiers and bring my own operations in and out of your territory as I want. And you wont have to owe me a single red cent." Red Hood pointed the tip of his knife upwards. "And if you act now… I'll even throw in the same kind of protection and backup I've promised everyone in my own territory, also for free."

Mr. Aquista tried not to look into his daughter's accusing eyes. "So… Basically… I work for you, but I don't have to kick up to you. And I can still run my own operations?"

"Now you're getting the hang of it.", Hood said.

Mr. Aquista looked aside as his anger gradually gave way to the sinking feeling of defeat. "I can't help but realize what that'll mean to you, Hood. With my soldiers under your control, you'll control half the city and you'll surround Black Mask on both sides."

"That's right, Aquista." Red Hood chuckled. "You're not as dumb as Black Mask's old goons say you are."

Darla's panicked and desperate eyes had now already turned into a sort of accusing glare, as if she finally understood everything that was going on around her in her life.

Mr. Aquista tried desperately not to make eye contact with Darla. He found it preferable to look into the cold white eyes of Red Hood's metal mask as opposed to facing his daughter's disapproving glare. He sighed, "That it, Hood? That's all your demands?"

"Well it's also a given that I want to be able to use the private airports in your territory too.", Red Hood informed him. "Aside from that, all I want to do is move around my troops and maybe borrow a few of yours. That's it."

"Alright…", Aquista admitted. "You have a deal." He suddenly pulled forth the last bits of confidence and resolve he had left. "But you better not touch one hair on her head! You hear me, Hood? Not a scratch on her!"

"I promise.", Hood assure him. "You keep your end of the bargain…" Red Hood pulled his knife away from her neck and unwrapped his arm from around her. "…then I'll keep my end. I'll take good care of her."

"Good." Then he looked away and muttered an almost silent "Thank you" to Red Hood. "Can I… Can I talk to her?", he said, still looking away from his laptop's screen and webcam.

"Sure." Red Hood stood up and ripped the duct tape off of Darla's mouth.

Darla gasped when Hood suddenly ripped the tape off. She took in a few deep breaths past her stinging lips and looked up at her father, again with sad eyes. "Daddy…?"

"Baby… Are you alright? What happened?", he asked, trying desperately to pull the words out of his throat fast enough to form a sentence.

"I'm… I'm all right. He- He just nabbed me when I was walking home from school.", she sniffled. "I'm alright. He hasn't hurt me."

"Good…", Aquista said, assured somewhat more.

"Daddy…" Her face tightened as she tried to hold back another sob and tear. "You're a mobster, aren't you?"

Aquista looked away, too guilt ridden to answer.

"All these years you told me you were just a construction union representative… I knew you were lying but… But at least… At least I never knew for sure…", she closed her eyes and sobbed a few times.

Silently, as not to intrude on the moment, Red Hood held a handkerchief in front of Darla's face, and she hesitated a moment before cautiously blowing her nose into it. Red Hood balled up the used handkerchief and tossed it aside without compliant.

Darla looked back to her father. "How, Daddy… How could you be a mobster?"

"Darla… I never meant for this to happen to you."

"Oh, big comfort!", she said. "This is why everyone at school's afraid to say anything real to me. They just kiss up to me and act all nice and friendly. They're all so fake…" She inhaled again and sobbed. "Is this why I get such good grades? Are the teachers afraid of giving me a real grade? Is everyone afraid you're gonna have then whacked off?"

"No! No, it doesn't work like that. You- You just don't do that kinda thing. You don't go hitting people like that."

Darla looked aside with a cringe. "Just… Why?" She looked back. "Why?"

Aquista paused. "It… I don't know. It's not something you can just walk away from."

Darla closed her eyes and began to cry again.

Henry Aquista's heart broke at the sight.

_He may be a mobster…_, Red Hood thought. _But I guess mobsters are people too._

Red Hood stepped forward and leaned closer to the TV and looked strait into the webcam that was mounted atop the TV. "Maybe you two should talk more about it when you get back together.", he suggested.

Aquista gratefully nodded. "Yes… When do I get her back?"

"Whenever you want, now."

"Now.", Aquista demanded.

"I'll call your cell phone in a few hours once I've scoped out a safe location. By tonight, darling Darla should be back in her own bed.", Red Hood said. "Until then."

Red Hood pressed a button on his laptop and terminated the connection.

Both the TV screen and Aquista's laptop's screen went black.

Darla hung her head low, contemplating the truth that she had learned. "My father's… My father's a mobster.", she slowly repeated to herself.

"If it's any consolation...", Red Hood began.

Darla looked up at him with big wet eyes.

"He's one of the nicer mobsters.", he said.

Darla said nothing.

"It sounded better in my head.", Red Hood admitted.

Darla hung her head again. "So what are you going to do to me now?"

Red Hood walked behind her and began untie her wrists. "Mostly… Exactly what I already said. I actually already have a good meeting place scoped out. So all we gotta do is go there, wait to make sure the coast is clear, then call daddy to come and pick you up." Red Hood moved on to untying her ankles.

"Oh.", Darla said quietly, barely a whisper. The grimness of her worst suspicions had been confirmed in a rather intense event, and it had left her emotionally weakened and frail. She sat heavily in her seat and did nothing to acknowledge Red Hood working around her. As Red Hood stood up and tossed aside the ropes he'd used to bind her to the chair, she looked up at him again. "And what about you? Who are you? What's your stake in all this?"

"Me? You can call me Red Hood." He glanced off to the side and tapped the chin of his metal mask with a single gloved finger. "And I guess you could describe as…" He looked back at her and said with subtle vigor, "…a real rain that will come and wash all this scum off the streets."

Darla stared back at him confused.

"It's a Martin Scorcese thing. I guess you wouldn't get it.", Hood confessed.

Darla nodded, similar to the way a high school quarterback nodded as his math teacher solved a complex equation that he never could hope to understand.

Hood was quiet for a moment.

Darla said nothing.

"You hungry?", Red Hood asked.

-Under The Hood-

Darla was too shocked to order. She sat behind Red Hood, tightly hugging the back of his jacket, as he and her sat on his bike. And his bike was currently in the drive through of a local fast food joint.

"I can't believe… My kidnapper… Is taking me to Mega Meaty Meats…", she said to herself.

"I'll have a black coffee and an apple pie with a slice of melted yellow cheese. I think that's a good decision.", Red Hood said to the microphone hidden in the giant plastic T-bone stake mascot in the drive through.

-Under The Hood-

"This new armor feels oddly… _light._", Dr. Light said, then began chuckling at his own pun.

The scientist who was adjusting the bear-claw like gauntlets on Dr. Light's arms failed to understand the joke. "It may seem light, but that's because it's so advanced. I assure you, it's not because of any loss of strength."

"Hmm…", Dr. Light mused. "Yes. Black Mask is going to great lengths to prepare I, Dr. Light!"

Dr. Light stood on a small platform in a makeshift laboratory. The scientist, a small and bald little man who hid his eyes behind thick glasses, buzzed busily around Dr. Light like a tailor adjusting a fine tuxedo for his favorite client.

"Are you sure the armor will be strong enough to allow me to _crush_ my greatest foes?", Dr. Light asked after a pause.

"Yes, I assure you." The scientist closed a panel on Dr. Light's backpack. "While your old suit was quite advanced, this version will surpass even that." The scientist chuckled. "Lighter doesn't exactly mean weaker. You'll learn that."

Dr. Light's eyes narrowed. "Believe me, good doctor… I know _better_ then anyone, that lighter is not weaker.", he said with a hint of malice.

Upstairs, a few moments later.

"Uh… Sir?", Mr. Li said, entering Black Mask's office.

Black Mask was at his desk, holding his blackened and charred head in his hands. He attempted to rub his sinuses past the burned and toughened hide of his skin. "Does someone wanna tell me why no one's taken out this Red Hood character yet?"

"Um, Sir? It's about Dr. Light."

"Yeah?", Mask said while still burring his face in his hands.

"He just flashed the scientist, sir. It blinded the scientist."

Black Mask swiftly lifted his head up with a very raised eyebrow and a crooked jaw. "He… What?", he asked slowly.

Mr. Li realized what he said. "Not remotely what I meant, sir. He, um… He shinned a very bright light at the scientist and blinded him."

Black Mask said nothing for a beat. Then he suddenly spurt out, "Spunky! I like that!"

"Sir, I think you may have misunderstood-"

"Find him another scientist. And someone get me a malt.", Black Mask ordered.

"Yes, sir." Mr. Li turned to walk off when suddenly his cell phone began ringing. Mr. Li instinctively reached into his pocket, withdrew his cell phone and opened it with a flick of his wrist, and held it up to his ear. "Hello?"

Black Mask leaned back in his chair and glanced at the city beyond his large window, but turned his attention back to Mr. Li.

"What? Where? He kidnapped his daughter?", Mr. Li questioned the person on the end of the phone conversation. "What- How did you learn this? Who are you?", he demanded. Then whomever it was who had called him hung up, and left Mr. Li looking at his phone in complete bafflement.

"What was that?", Black Mask asked.

Mr. Li began searching through his phones recent call list, attempting to discover which number had called him. "Someone with an untraceable number, sir.", he looked from his phone and to Black Mask. "He said there's a deal happening between Red Hood and Aquista right now as we speak."

"A deal?", Black Mask said, his interests perked. "Details, Li. Details.", He requested.

"I will require a new scientist to complete my armor!", Dr. Light announced as he slammed open Black Mask's door and barged his way in. "The last one was… blinded by my brilliance.", he said with a smirk.

"Your brilliance?", Black Mask asked. "You've named it?"

Mr. Li slapped his own face.

-Under The Hood-

Red Hood and Darla Aquista waited near a pier at the docks on Jump City's northern side. Red Hood leaned against his bike, a red Suzuki TL1000S, while Darla sat on a crate nearby. She knew she wouldn't be allowed to get much further away from Red Hood then that.

Red Hood had his arms crossed as he leaned against his bike, waiting for Mr. Henry Aquista to show up. But something just didn't feel right to Red Hood. He could feel it, subtly, deep down in his gut. With narrowed eyes he examined the docks around him slowly and methodically.

Soon his paranoia and hyper vigilance was rewarded when he thought he saw a shadow move from beyond other crates near the pier. Hood stared carefully at the vicinity of the abstract shadow.

Darla, blissfully unaware of any danger that might approach, sighed in boredom and misery. She was about to open her mouth to start a conversation with her captor.

_Blast!_

In the blink of an eye, Red Hood was suddenly in a sharp-shooting stance with one of his blaster pistols level with both hand and extended before him. He had already fired one shot and he pulled the trigger again to release a second one after another blink of an eye.

_Blast!_

Suddenly there was a short yelp of pain from beyond the crates, and a man with a rifle fell to the cold concrete and grasped his wounded leg. The man, indistinguishable from any ordinary thug, looked at Red Hood and Darla with a sense of desperation and pointed his rifle at Red Hood.

_Blast!_

Suddenly the thug's rifle flew from out of his hands thanks to a well-aimed shot from Red Hood's own blaster.

"Darla! On the bike, now!", Red Hood said as he swung a leg around his bike and straddled it. "We're gonna have company!"

"What?", Darla jumped from the crate and mounted the bike behind Red Hood.

Red Hood glared once more at the disarmed thug as he reholstered his blaster in his jacket and started his bike. "That's gotta be one of Mask's thugs." He throttled his bike and instantly took off with enough torque to unscrew a man's head off his shoulders like the cap of a bottle of Coca-Cola.

The bike stood on its rear wheel for a moment before Hood leaned forward and returned the front wheel to the ground.

"That guy was too prepared to have been some lucky punk.", he said as he quickly sped between crates. "Neither my people or your dad's would be dumb enough to try something. It's gotta be one of Black Mask's boys." He leaned and made the bike take a sharp turn to avoid a giant reel of rope.

"But I thought this was a secret meeting or something!", Darla shouted over the bike's engines.

"It was.", Hood said.

On his way off the dockyards, Red Hood saw a limo ahead of him. Red Hood beared to his left and slowed down, the limo slowed down to a stop too.

Red Hood slowed to a stop beside it as the window rolled down and Henry Aquista's head popped out as soon as it was clear of the window. "Darla! What's going on?"

"Someone found out about us.", Red Hood said before Darla could speak. "I think its Black Mask trying to get a drop on our deal. Get out of here, head home and stay indoors."

"What about Darla? Just let her off and I'll let her in!", he said, referring to the limo.

Red Hood glanced behind him and saw a bright light from behind the dock master's office. Whatever it was, he knew it wasn't good and he knew Black Mask's cronies weren't far behind.

Hood quickly turned his head back to Aquista. "No time. I'll take care of her until it's safe."

"But-"

"Just keep up you're end of the bargain and I'll keep her in one piece. Go home and hide.", Red Hood instructed.

Red Hood throttled his bike and took off again in an instant, leaving Henry behind to stare at his daughter as they disappeared behind a sharp turn. Henry Aquista cringed at the thought of his daughter and Red Hood's reckless driving of that motorcycle.

"Sir!", his driver said.

Henry looked forward and saw a man step from behind the dock master's office, a man whose hands and chest shinned a bright yellow light.

"Sir, we may wanna get out of here if that's who I think it is.", the driver said with a sense of urgency.

"Get out of here! Now!"

The driver put the limo back in drive and made the sharpest and quickest U-turn the long car was capable of. The front of the car scrapped against a chain link fence, scratch the paint and glass of the headlights. But the driver argued to himself that it was far better to repair the car then to pay a mortician.

The man enveloped in bright light and held his brighter hands together before a sudden burst of light and energy shot forth towards the limo.

The driver pressed the gas pedal all the way to the floorboard and Henry Aquista was thrown to the back as the limo rocketed off.

Then the beam of energy struck the ground just behind the limo's bumper as the car narrowly avoided a blast that was aimed at its fuel tank. The blast from the energy beam vaporizing the road shook the limo and sent Henry Aquista forward and off his seat.

Aquista rolled on the ground, a victim of the forces of gravity and momentum, as his driver pushed the car to its limits to escape the assault in time.

Another sharp turn, and the limo was no longer in sight, having retreated behind buildings and further onto the road that Red Hood had spun down.

The light that enveloped the man slowly dimmed and died away. Then other thugs and enforcers stepped forward from their hiding places and gathered around the man. They all held rifles or blasters of some sort, save for the man who had produced the light.

"It would seem that our enemies have retreated upon seeing I… Dr. Light!", the egotistical man said. "But it won't matter. Like a bird stalking his prey in the winter, I shall catch them…", he said, trying hard to seem menacing.

"Uh… Birds don't stick around for the winter. They go south.", one of the thugs informed him.

"Silence minion!", Dr. Light said.

-Under The Hood-

"For the record…", Darla began. "I'm not a fan of being blindfolded on a motorcycle! Especially one you're driving!" She clutched Red Hood's abdomen tighter and could feel vague shapes of various weapons even through the thick material of his jacket. She was blindfolded as she rode behind Red Hood on his bike, and she squeezed her arms tighter around him as he made another turn, leaning closer to the road.

"Normally, neither I am. But it doesn't make a lot of difference for you, does it?" He finished the turn and straitened the bike. "Not like you could do much even if you could see."

Darla didn't reply, only buried her face in the back of his jacket, inhaling the scent of the leather.

The bike gradually began to slow down as it made a few more turns. Finally it slowed to an idle cruise and stopped. Darla heard what sounded like a garage door close behind her and she could smell the distinct aroma of oil and a little gasoline.

The bike leaned to one side as she heard Red Hood kick the kickstand down. "Ride's over. You can get off now.", he said.

Darla had to pry her own arms off of Red Hood's abdomen. Then she felt Red Hood crawl off the bike and touch her hand.

"Don't take the blindfold off, yet. I'll help you off."

Darla didn't question the kindness or chivalry; Red Hood had assisted her in mounting the bike blindfolded when they first left to get something to eat. And she had been blindfolded in the van Red Hood used to abduct her in the first place. She placed her other hand on Red Hood's and used him to balance herself as she swung one leg off the bike and stood on solid ground again.

Holding her hand almost like a leash, Red Hood began to guide Darla forward. She heard him type a few things on a keypad and heard a door opened. He slowly guided her up a few flights of stairs and then down another hallway. He opened a door and led her into a room, only to shut the door behind them.

Then he let go of her hand and removed her blindfold in one swift move. She was now in a bedroom, with painfully obvious old wooden walls. Despite the room's obvious age and decomposition, she did not smell any hints of mold or other musts that accompanied old buildings. She saw a bed in one corner of the small room next to a nightstand and chair, and was surprised at how nice the thought of going to sleep might be.

Red Hood guided her to the bed and sat her down on it, then he took a seat in the chair next to it.

Darla sat on the bed and stared at the floor in an odd sort of detachment now.

Red Hood figured she must have a lot to think about. This morning she probably woke up, ate some cereal, and went to school. Now she was the hostage of a strange masked man who had plunged both himself and her in the middle of a gang war.

Darla took in a deep breath and seemed to regain a sense of composure over herself. She looked up at Red Hood. "So what now?"

"Well, I made a promise to your father I'd take care of you. So I guess you can stay here for a while till things die down."

"Things die down?", she repeated him. "What do you mean?"

"Someone leaked.", Red Hood said. "Only me and your dad should've known about any of this.", he said as he leaned back in his chair and let his head hang back. "Black Mask must've sent some goons over, hoping to ruin the deal. Or better yet, catch you and make his own deal with Aquista."

Darla blinked a few times as she became oddly familiar with the ways and logic of organized crime. "So Black Mask wants me?"

"Not as bad as he wants my head on a stick…", Red Hood admitted as he glanced at her. "But he sure wouldn't mind having a poker chip like you on his side of the table."

"You're not gonna make a deal and hand me over to him, are you?"

Red Hood lifted his head up and replied. "Nah. I made a promise. Besides, you've seen enough. I'm not gonna do anything to you."

Darla visibly relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief. "So how long am I gonna be here?", she asked after a moment.

"Not too sure yet…", Red Hood admitted. "I didn't plan on you still being here. But now either your dad or Black Mask will have to force a hand. Black Mask has gotta be nervous once he realizes he's surrounded on both sides. So… It might be a little too dangerous for you on the streets. When things cool down, I'll take you home."

"What do you think Black Mask will do?"

Red Hood didn't answer, he seemed to stare off into the distance, as if trying to figure out the answer to that question himself. Finally, he said, "Somehow he found out about this deal. There's a leak somewhere, and Black Mask will jump at the chance to turn me into a bloody pulp." He turned back to Darla. "Don't worry about it. None of that's gonna touch you."

"What about my dad?"

"I don't know. Yet."

Darla lifted her legs up and hugged her knees. "So… Black Mask's gonna make a move soon… Does that mean this'll end up as a full-scale gang war?", she asked him, looking at him with those big delicate eyes again.

"Whatever you want to call this… It wont last much longer. But no matter how you look at it…" He paused. "Looks like everyone's gonna have to show their cards or fold really soon."

Darla hugged her legs tighter and rested her chin on her legs. She retreated into a tighter ball and looked away as she thought.

Red Hood looked away and rested his chin on his fist as he lounged in the seat and thought as well. He tried to figure out how Black Mask discovered the deal, where the leak was. That would determine Black Mask's next move. But no matter which move Mask would make next, Red Hood knew it would be big one. Black Mask was getting frustrated and impatient, he'd want a swift and bloody end to Red Hood soon. 

A long moment had passed by as Red Hood and Darla separately mused to themselves.

Darla took in a deep breath and looked back at Red Hood. "So… My dad's a mobster, huh?", she said with a sort of chuckle.

Red Hood turned back to her. "Yep."

"Well that explains a lot…" It was obvious that she was still trying to possess and coupe with this new development. Despite always suspecting her father was a mobster, it was an obvious shock to confirm it in such a traumatic event as a hostage taking. "Explains why everyone's so nice to me but no one even wants to date me."

Red Hood considered leaving. It would probably be best not to reveal anymore of himself in any form. But then again… It would all be over soon enough, and it might be nice to have someone to talk to. "Makes sense. Imagine telling a crime boss 'I'll take good care of her and have her back by curfew.' Can't really blame 'em."

"You sure don't seem scared."

"I've got worse things to worry about then your dad, frankly."

Darla unfolded her legs and laughed to herself. "Go figure… The first person to not be scared to talk to me… Is the guy taking me hostage!", she said with a laugh.

Red Hood chuckled to himself too. "Great… Now you're developing Stockholm syndrome."

………………………………………………………………………………...

Author's Note: I made two references to Martin Scorcese's 1976 film, _Taxi Driver_. Can you spot them?

Sorry about the subtle dirty joke I hid in there. I just couldn't help it.

Oh, and look out for Green Arrow #69 this December. It'll feature Red Hood himself! Apparently Red Hood is gunning down the new Speedy II. I'm as clueless as to why as you are.

Please Review.


	7. Scope Of Project

Jump City.

A relatively new city. There were few old buildings and many new skyscrapers. It was separated into two by a sizeable bay and featured it's own suspension bridge to help connect the two halves. It had a tiny island in the middle of that bay, that's soul purpose was to be a foundation for the giant "T" shaped tower that had become the city's most famous landmark. It had a sizeable Chinatown with an Asian population to fill it. A mixture of break-through technology labs, money, and an as-of-yet stabilized police department were probably the chief reasons why the city seemed to breathe villainy and the need for heroes.

Jump City was, for the most part, a sick city. Well-meaning and truly beautiful. But sick.

And at the center of the pus-filled wound, on a floor high in a certain skyscraper, was Black Mask's office.

-Under The Hood-

"Alright, listen up, team.", Red Hood said as he stepped in front of the massive TV screen that the H.I.V.E. Five so adored. He held his hands behind his back, squared his shoulders, and walked with a disciplined manor befitting of a general.

"You've all been hanging in there and hitting hard this whole time. The good news is, we're almost there.", Red Hood said. "We're at the final stage of my whole Blitz-Black Mask plan. Including Aquista, I control half the city. Ol' Potato Head is sweating bullets by now."

Each member of the H.I.V.E. Five sat on their couch, watching and listening to Red Hood with various levels of enthusiasm. Starting at the top with Jinx or Private HIVE, with Gizmo rounding out the bottom.

Red Hood narrowed his eyes just a tad and ignored Gizmo's lack of enthusiasm. "We surround Black Mask on both sides, and now it's time to hit 'em where it hurts. He's spent all this time sending his goons to our borders. While meanwhile, I've been sending over a few good men by boat to Aquista's place. We'll hit him from both sides at once."

Hood glanced over his team. "But then again… You know all this already, don't you? You wanna hear about where you get to hunker down and plant a flag, huh?"

"Spill the beans already.", Gizmo asked impatiently.

"Fine. But only since you asked so nicely…", Red Hood said with an annoyed tone and a slight glare. "Jinx, SeeMore, and Mammoth are here. Gizmo and Private HIVE are going to Aquista's part of town."

"You're splitting up us three?", Jinx asked, referring to her, Mammoth, and Gizmo.

"Yes. Both areas need leadership from my top lieutenants. I also wouldn't be surprised if Black Mask sent a few super baddies he had in his pocket at us too. I need top students on both side." He shrugged somewhat. "Besides… I wouldn't want you three to form a cliché and leaving out Private and SeeMore.", he said almost cynically.

"Sounds good to me.", SeeMore said contently.

"What're you gonna be doing?", Mammoth asked.

"Yeah!", Gizmo asked with Mammoth.

"What I do best." Red Hood paused. "Making Mask sweat… I'll be jumping around. Hitting big targets, providing backup, coordinating troops, that kind of stuff."

They seemed satisfied with that answer.

"Now, everyone understands their jobs? No more questions?", he asked.

"No, sir!", was the only reply that came, and it was from Private HIVE.

"Good. Then get going. You got friends to make.", Red Hood instructed with a wave off.

-Under The Hood-

The water lapped against the hulls of the cigarette boats and pleasure yachts that had been crossing back and forth between the North and South sides of the bay all day and well into the late evening.

Robin watched them from the main living room of Titans Tower with a sense of suspicious and contempt. He knew there had to be something wrong with this picture, something that just wasn't right. But so long as they did nothing illegal, he couldn't lift a finger.

He kept his glare steady on the passengers of the boats, none of who looked like upstanding citizens.

"I'm telling you, Red Hood has got to go.", Raven said as she crossed her arms and looked at Beast Boy.

"I don't know, Raven… I mean, he_ did_ save that little girl from a fire. Maybe he's not _all_ bad.", Beast Boy pleaded his case before Raven.

"He threw a man out a window. That's bad _enough_.", she said simply and firmly.

"Hey… Wait a second.", Cyborg interjected as he approached. "You saved that dude who fell out the window, right, Raven?", he asked.

"Yeah? So?", she replied.

"So Red Hood just so happened to have thrown a guy out the window at the exact moment you were passing by?", he almost knowingly.

"Yeah. What are you suggesting?", she asked. Then her eyes widened just a tiny bit as she realized. "No. That's impossible.", she said as her face returned to its normal stoic pose. "There's no way he knew I would happen to be there."

"Hey." Cyborg shrugged and looked off to the side with a subtle smile. "I'm just saying…"

"See!", Beast Boy happily said with a finger pointed to Raven.

"Friends!", Starfire shouted to the rest of the team as she flew in. "Friends!"

"Starfire?" Robin spun away from the window and jumped away from the ledge, over the computer terminals, and past the couch. "What's wrong?"

Starfire swooped and stopped among the rest of the Titans. "Look what just arrived!" She presented an opened envelope, cradled face down in her gentle hands, to Robin.

Robin took the opened envelope and examined it.

"To: Tween Titans. From: Red Hood", was on the face of the envelope.

Robin cocked an eyebrow up in surprise.

"I looked inside at once at the parcel, and it left me very confused. What does it mean?", Starfire asked.

Robin withdrew the contents of the envelope, which was a simple birthday invitation card. Except this birthday card had been hand made, and featured a crudely hand-drawn picture of chibi versions of both Red Hood and Black Mask. Chibi Red Hood wore a pointed party hat on his head, while chibi Black Mask blew on a party blowout whistle. "You're invited to Red Hood and Black Mask's big party bonanza, tonight at 7! Where: Jump City.", was written above the image of the two chibi crime lords.

"Now that's something I didn't expect to see.", Raven commented.

Robin stared at it in befuddlement.

"What does it mean?", Starfire asked again to no one in particular.

"It means things are going to start popping soon.", Raven said grimly.

"Seven O'Clock?", Cyborg said as he looked at his wrist display. "That's in ten minutes!"

"Titans! Go!", Robin said.

-Under The Hood-

While the chibi version of Black Mask on the party invitation may have been blowing on party favors, the real Black Mask was far from.

The real Black Mask sat in his chair and pulled and scratched his fingers at his scalp. He wished he still had hair on his head just so he could pull on it. "Someone wanna tell me why Red Hood isn't a very bloody spot on the carpet yet!?", he yelled to no one in particular. "Guy's been moving thugs to Aquista's territory all day, I know it! He's gonna pull something and what do we got?!"

"Um…", Mr Li, the only person in the room with Black Mask, said as he gathered his thoughts. "We've posted as many soldiers and supervillains as we've can, sir. Mumbo Jumbo is out of prison and guarding Aquista, while Cinderblock is guarding Hood's South side. Dr. Light is here, with us, ready to go out where we need him."

"I want another whacko on Hood's front door!", Black Mask said. "That area is over three times as big as Aquista and Cinderblock can't take it on his own."

"Shall I send Dr. Light? Or should I find someone else?"

"Someone else, we need our finger on the Dr. Light button. Send someone else, anyone else!" Black Mask barked out as he rose from his seat. "We got Punk Rocket? Or Johnny Rancid?", he asked as he stared out his window.

"Uh, no, sir. But Adonis just came back from Star City prison too. Should I send him?"

"Yeah, send him.", Mask said somewhat calmer, but no less angry and hateful.

Suddenly fire alarms blared through out the building and white-flashing lights began to strobe all over.

"Fire alarm?", Mr. Li said as he looked around. "Sir, we better get you to the back stairwell. I'll have your limo ready.", he picked up his phone and began talking on it. After the correct call had quickly been made and Jimmy was told to be waiting by the back stairwell, Mr. Li hung up his phone and turned back to his employer. "Sir? We should get moving."

"Wait a min…", Black Mask squinted his eyes as he looked out his window. "What is that…?" Then his eyes widened. "Ah, heck."

Red Hood stood on top of an adjacent skyscraper's rooftop, holding a rocket launcher over his shoulder and waving at Black Mask with his free hand.

"MOVE IT!", Black Mask yelled as he ran away from the window and past Mr. Li.

"Wow. He can _move_ when he really wants to.", Red Hood commented to himself as he moved his once-waving hand to the steady the launcher's barrel.

Then he pressed the firing stud.

The thunderous explosion that followed echoed throughout the city, especially on the east side that the obliterated office had been facing.

And all throughout the city, Red Hood's soldiers and pocketed villains made their move.

7:02 PM.

-Under The Hood-

Sometime later, Black Mask busted through the doors of a local pool hall and bar with Mr. Li in tow.

All its usual customers had been cleared out for its VIP customers. In other words, it was filled with Black Mask's top lieutenants, who were all busy talking on their cell phones or with each other.

"ALRIGHT!", Mask bellowed. "I want Hood and I want his bomb throwing butt _now!_ Give me a status report!"

"It's everywhere, boss!", Alexia, the only female lieutenant, said. A dark haired and tanned skin attractive woman, she must have, by default, given up any maternal humanity left in her by now to achieve her rank. "Hood's troops have taken out our guys in Kings, Parkinson, and half of Chinatown.", she said with a practiced smooth voice but an urgent tone.

"Park Place too!", Willy added. Willy was a big African American man with tiny little sunglasses always glued onto his large head.

Black Mask gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. His brows narrowed and tightened like old wrinkly leather. "Doesn't anyone have any good new?", he asked slowly and venomously.

"We just captured Breeze Way Trail!", said Dennis, a man with a cell phone, a tacky necktie, and slicked back blonde hair.

Then suddenly a loud crunching sound roared from Dennis's open cell phone, as if a car had landed next to the person on the other end of Dennis's phone call. Or possibly, the car landed _on_ him.

"Uh…", Dennis began with a frown. "Nevermind. Maybe we didn't."

"Where's Light? Where's the Titans and the cops? Where's Hood?!?!", Black Mask yelled and demanded of everyone as he stepped into the center of the room and stood next to a billiards table.

"The Titans and the cops are all over the place trying to put out fires.", Alexia said. "Last I heard, Cyborg and Mammoth were wrestling."

"Dr. Light?", Mask asked.

"I'm trying to reach him as we speak, sir.", Mr. Li said, looking at his cell phone past broken and chipped glasses, a result of the explosion at Mask's former office. "I'll instruct him to pursue Red Hood.", he said. "Where ever _he_ is…", he added quietly as he dialed his phone.

Black Mask looked around, surveying all his lieutenants. "WHERE'S HOOD?", he shouted after a pause.

No answer. No one knew.

Black Mask scowled to no one and everyone. As much as he'd love to take the nearest pool stick, drive it down one of his lieutenants' throats, and twirl their intestines around it like spaghetti on a fork… He needed those lieutenants, now more then ever.

-Under The Hood-

Red Hood sped by on his motorcycle, and casually tossed a live and armed grenade aside and onto the street.

It exploded harmlessly and left a small crater in the pavement. But the car just in front of it had to careen hard to the right to avoid the blast and the crater, and the poor car ran strait into a lamppost.

Hood glanced back only momentarily. He saw both drivers dazed in their seats. They were alive and well, almost unfortunately, but they wouldn't be delivering that desperately needed supply of ammunition they had in their trunk to any of Black Mask's men. And that was good enough.

Red Hood made an easy turn onto another street, and continued down the less crowded neighborhood street until-

_Screech!_

Red Hood slammed on the bike's breaks and lean back as the bike momentarily made a front wheelie as it stooped. As the back tire touched the ground again, Red Hood looked up at what made him suddenly stop.

Dr. Light was standing right in front of him, with hands and chest glowing with a warm light. "At last… Red Hood, we have met."

"Dr. Light? Black Mask sent _you_ to wipe me out?", Red Hood asked.

"Yes… Yes, he has.", Dr. Light said smoothly and confidently.

Red Hood raised an eyebrow. "Why? Don't tell me he's actually paying you what your worth."

"Uh- Well, I…" Dr. Light's hands and chest dimmed quickly, as quickly as his resolve and intimidation dimmed.

"Just how much _is_ he paying you anyway?" Red Hood crossed his arms casually.

"Um… Enough!"

"Tell ya what…" Red Hood uncrossed his arms and pointed roughly westward, towards the bay. "Out there, past Titans Tower, is an oil refinery. It's mine. It's my territory. You let me off the hook, and it's yours."

"Why would _I_ have need for an oil refinery?", Dr. Light asked.

"Think of all the power you could get out of all that crude oil. Enough to power one really big light bulb." Hood said as he casually crossed his arms and leaned on the handlebars of his bike.

Dr. Light's eyes went big as he realized this. Then he smiled with a big grin. "Very well, Red Hood… You have yourself a deal. I shall leave Black Mask's employ and leave you alone in exchange for your oil refinery."

Red Hood grasped the handles of his bike again. "Deal. Good doing business with ya." Then Red Hood turned his bike to the side and rocketed off and as far away from Dr. Light as quickly as he could.

He hoped Dr. Light would never realize that the oil refinery never was Red Hood's territory, if it even still worked!

-Under The Hood-

The sound of gunfire popped around in the night air like the sound of fireworks on the 4th of July. A 4th of July that Mad Mob didn't have anything to do with, that was…

Gizmo crawled up the side of a halfway house with his rebuilt spider-legs and, like a spider, quickly scuttled to the nearest dark corner on the rooftop. He looked around carefully, then pulled out a cell phone, and made a call.

Elsewhere, Black Mask was still biting his nails and barking out orders. He was a hair's width from turning a billiard ball rack into Dennis's next necktie, when Mr. Li tapped him on his shoulder.

"Sir!", he said with a warm smile. "It's the snitch.", he said, holding up his phone.

"Hot dog!", he exclaimed. "Finally, some good news!" He snatched the phone from Mr. Li's hand.

"Did he just say… 'hot dog'?", Billy whispered to Alexia.

"Hello?", Black Mask said into the phone. "Uh huh… Mhmm. Yeah. Mhmm.", he spoke every once in a while as he listened to what the snitch had to say. "Fine, you got yourself a deal. Now what do you got to say?"

There was a pause as Black Mask listened.

"HE'S WHERE?!", Black Mask shouted into the phone with the closest thing to a smile anyone had ever seen on his lipless face.

Elsewhere, after a few moments of conversation, Gizmo cackled quietly to himself as he hung up his phone.

Then it was quiet. And the only sound to be heard, aside from the occasional gunfire off in the distance, was Private HIVE's shocked gasp.

-Under The Hood-

Jinx smiled to herself as a few thugs and punks she had taken with her succeeded in "convincing" Fat Eddie, by brandishing pistols in front of him, to come and work for Red Hood.

Her H.I.V.E. communicator rang, and she turned away from the task at hand, confident, and walked out of Fat Eddie's home as she withdrew the communicator.

"Hello?", she said into it.

"Lieutenant Jinx, I have urgent news regarding a traitor!", Private HIVE said over the communicator with both excitement and disgust in his voice.

"A traitor?", she asked, then gasped quietly to herself when she realized. _The leak!_, she thought. "I'm listening! Spill it!", she said, grasping the communicator with both hands.

-Under The Hood-

Red Hood cruised on his bike, on his way to his next target. When his communicator began to ring, something it rarely did, he reached into his jacket and removed it. "Yeah?"

"Hood!", Jinx said over the communicator. "It's Gizmo. He's the leak!"

"Yeah?", Red Hood with slightly narrowing eyes. "I figured as much."

"You knew?"

"Didn't know for sure, just suspected. That's why I stuck him as far away from my territory as possible with a patriot like Private HIVE."

"How did you know?"

"Wasn't that hard. Out of the few people who knew about my deal with Aquista, Gizmo liked me the least. I'll have to have a nice little _chat_ with him later."

"You may not have time.", Jinx said. "He knows where you live! He told Black Mask."

"_What?!_", Red Hood said with widening eyes. It seemed that, for the first time since he arrived in Jump City, he was honestly surprised. "He knows where my headquarters is? How'd he find that out?"

"I think he followed you with that mini-chopper or jetpack of his. Something like that."

Red Hood continued his eternal glare. "Do _you_ know where my headquarters is too?"

Jinx paused for a moment. "…I do _now_.", she said sheepishly.

"Then listen up and listen very carefully, Jinx.", Red Hood began in a firm and authorities tone. "Go to my headquarters and _protect_ it. That building is too important to loose. It's got both Darla and a whole mess of other things we can't afford to let Black Mask have. If he gets his hands on that building, this war blows up in our face ten kinds of ways. Both you and him are closer to it then I am, so go there and hold him off 'till I get there. Got that? Protect my headquarters. _Do you understand?_"

Jinx paused for just a moment. "I got it.", she said reaffirming. "I'll take SeeMore and make sure that no one steps foot around that place."

"Good. And Jinx…" He paused. "Thank you.", he pushed out before terminating the connection.

Then he made a sharp turn, throttled his bike, and sped off Southward towards his endangered home.

He picked up his own communicator again and pressed a few specific buttons. "Darla? Hello? Darla!", he said.

"So glad you called… I was begging to miss your charming repartee.", Darla answered drolly.

"Listen to me, you're in big trouble. Black Mask found out where you are and he's on his way. You need to get out of there ASAP.", he said.

"What?", she asked, suddenly shocked and at least a little scared.

"Listen closely. Underneath your nightstand is a key I hid there for you incase of emergency. It'll open all the doors in my headquarters. Take it and get out of there!"

"Yeah. Okay.", Darla said calmly, knowing there was no time to panic or be scared.

"And one more thing. In the basement you'll find a locked duffle bag hanging from a hook by the door."

"Yeah?"

"It's my emergency supplies. Take it with you. Don't open it. I'll come back for it later."

"Alright, I'll get it." The subtle clicking of a key being hurryingly inserted into a lock could be heard from the communicator. "I'm unlocking the door now. What about Black Mask? You said the streets were too dangerous for me."

"You're right. Take a gun or two from the basement too. You'll have plenty to choose from.", he informed her.

"O- Okay. I will."

"Good. Get out of there now. Red Hood out." He terminated the transmission.

-Under The Hood-

"Well…", Black Mask said once. "Well…", he said twice. "Well…", he said a third time, but slower and more satisfied then the first two times. He wore a light grey overcoat over his normal business suit attire.

Him, Mr. Li, and Cinderblock behind them beheld the old building from across the three-way intersection that the building directly faced and stared down the intersecting road.

The building was three stories tall with a deep basement beneath. It was made of bricks, and many of its original wooden reinforcements had been strengthened with metal and wire inserts to protect from Earthquakes. It was one of the very few old and generally decrepit buildings in all of Jump City, although it was far from falling over from a mere gust of wind, despite how it looked. Fire escapes lined one side of the red brick building, and an old lighted sign near the front door read "Harmon Dental". The first floor was occupied by the dentist's office that the building once originally was for, and the two floors above it were intended to be apartments for residence.

"_This_ is it?", Black Mask said. "This? This is his big headquarters? The only things holding this dump together are the bird droppings! I need a tetanus shot just from looking at it!"

"Certainly doesn't look too impressive, sir…", Mr Li said.

Cinderblock… Well Cinderblock didn't say anything. The only audible sound from him was some sort of a grunt.

"So what's the plan?", Mr. Li said. "Storm the place? He may have Darla Aquista in there."

"Nah. I'd bet each one of your fingers that he's got some kind of security system in their that we wouldn't stand a chance against." He slowly turned his head around and raised a knowing eyebrow at Cinderblock. "But whatever he's got wont be a problem for you, will it, big guy?"

Cinderblock squared his shoulders and closed his fists.

"And Aquista's daughter?", Mr. Li asked.

"Who cares?", Black Mask spit out as he looked back at the building. "Go get 'em, Cinderblock!", he ordered quiet happily while pointing at the building.

In reply, Cinderblock stomped past them and began to run towards the building.

And suddenly, as Cinderblock's huge foot made contact with the ground, the road beneath him crumbled unnaturally. The asphalt cracked and crumbled until a hole swallowed up Cinderblock's foot, and then his other foot was swallowed as soon as it touched the ground too. The strange cracking and crumbling effect traveled all around simultaneously, and Black Mask and Mr. Li stumbled back and forth on their feet, barely able to keep their balance as the road beneath them cracked.

"What that-?", Black Mask asked.

"An Earthquake?", Mr. Li proposed as he fell against and clung to a near by car.

"Nope!" Jinx said as she landed on the cracked pavement gracefully from somewhere unseen above them. She stood up with pink glowing eyes and pink arches sparking between the fingers of her arms crossed over her chest.

"Oh, great.", Black Mask said unamused. "Red Hood's cheerleader is here."

Jinx perked an eyebrow up. "Cheerleader?" Then she brooded and gritted her teeth together. She threw up her sparking hands, knelt down, and slammed her palms on the ground with a loud yell of exertion.

A giant pink ripple surged from all around and towards her three enemies. Windows broke, the ground crumbled even more, and Black Mask and Mr. Li were both thrown back onto the fragmented road.

Cinderblock slipped onto his hands and knees. With his massive hands, he grabbed huge chunks of broken apart asphalt and hurled them at Jinx.

Jinx quickly dived out of the way and rolled on the ground like some sort of demented gymnast while the chunks hit where she was. She rolled back onto her feet and sent two more waves of hexes at Cinderblock.

Cinderblock crossed his arms and took the brunt of the hexes force in stride, then ripped a huge boulder from the ground and held it over his shoulders.

He was about to throw it when suddenly a single red beam hit it from above and split the boulder in two.

"I got your back, Jinx!", SeeMore said triumphantly from atop an adjacent rooftop as he switched the lenses over his eye from Heat Vision to something else.

Cinderblock grunted and tossed the two halves of the boulders at SeeMore.

"Agh!" SeeMore quickly dived out of the way of one boulder just in time to be get smacked by the other. The Cyclops rolled on the ground and fell unconscious with a moan.

"Great…", Jinx said to herself.

Suddenly Cinderblock landed next to her with a loud thump after he'd jumped from where he stood. He reached out with his massive stone hand to her.

Jinx jumped up and rolled on her back across the roof of a car as Cinderblock's massive hand crashed into the car's frame.

As soon as she rolled off the other side of the car, Cinderblock grabbed the car with his other hand and tossed it aside with little more then a grunt.

"Yeah! Get her!", Black Mask cheered.

Then, with surprising speed for someone so huge, Cinderblock reached out and grabbed Jinx with his massive hands and his stone fingers. He lifted her up in the air and paused, as wondering what he should slam her into first.

Just then, down the street, Red Hood darted onto the road that his headquarters faced and skidded his bike to a stop while turning 90 degrees to face Cinderblock. "Hey!", he yelled loud enough to get everyone attention.

Everyone turned and saw him.

"Hood?!", Black Mask said.

Red Hood withdrew his grapnel gun from his jacket, pressed a button on it, and the barrel fell down like the barrel of a shotgun. Then he slid away the grapnel device and it's barrel, leaving the gun mostly empty of anything except a handle and trigger. He placed the grapnel module behind his back, and from that same spot withdrew another module with a small rocket attached, and slid the rocket module into the gun. He did that all with a practiced mechanical efficiency, like a soldier disassembling his rifle.

"Good help's hard to find.", he said to no one in particular as he quickly raised the gun with enough force to whip the barrel back into place, and pointing directly at Cinderblock.

Seeing this, Jinx quickly slapped her hands over Cinderblock's wrist and sent hexes into the joint, hoping to cramp it or some other painful result.

Cinderblock jerked in sharp pain and let go of Jinx.

Just as he did, Red Hood pulled the trigger and fired the rocket. It screamed through the air until it impacted against Cinderblock's chest and exploded. The blast stunned the stone beast, almost knocking him down.

Jinx had rolled just out of range of the blast, although her ears still rang a little, and emerged from behind a blue postal drop box.

"Jinx!", Hood called out as he replaced the empty rocket module with it's original grapnel module. "I need a ramp!"

"Got it!", Jinx called back and fired hexes at the road before Red Hood.

The ground just in front of Red Hood crumbled and dipped into a deep pothole that smoothed out and gradually sloped upwards the closer it was to Cinderblock until it finally shot up a few feet from the ground and stopped.

Keeping his grapnel gun in one hand, Hood throttled the bike and dived it into the pothole. A second later his head reemerged into sight as he drove up the improvised ramp.

Jinx figured she better take cover and ran away as fast as she could.

Red Hood rocketed off the edge of the underground ramp and into the air towards Cinderblock.

Cinderblock saw it coming and managed to grab Red Hood's bike and stop it in mid air by grabbing both tires. The back tire grinded and squealed against his stone hand.

"Later, beautiful.", Red Hood pointed and fired his grapnel gun, and then flew off on its retracting line, leaving a beeping explosive charge attached to the running bike's gas tank.

_BOOM!!!_

Red Hood clumsily landed on the ground and nearly tripped over his uneven footing. And just after he landed and began to retract his grapnel, an unconscious Cinderblock slammed into the ground with a deafening roar and a tremble. Scraps and pieces of Red Hood's bike gently fell to the ground.

As Red Hood put away his grapnel gun, Jinx ran up to him.

"Hood! I got here as soon as I could I-"

"Good job.", he said, interrupting her. He looked around and said, "Now, to deal with- Hey, where's Black Mask?"

Both of them looked around and only saw Mr. Li huddled behind a car.

"He must have gone inside!", Jinx said as she turned to the building.

"Stay here.", Hood instructed as he ran off. "Call for help! We'll have more company soon!", he called out as he ran.

In the alley next to the building, Darla quickly opened the side door and emerged into the alley. The duffle bag was strapped over her shoulder and she nervously fumbled over a pistol in her hand.

"Hello, dear…", Black Mask said.

She snapped her head around with a frightened gasp and saw Black Mask standing about five feet away from her, wearing his light grey overcoat and holding a shinning silver gun in his hand by his thigh.

"Fancy meeting you here.", he said to her.

………………………………………………………………………………...

Author's Note: Sorry it took me so long to update. I was too excited about _Twice A Thief_.

One more chapter left! Bet you can't wait.


	8. Closeout

"Fancy meeting you here…", Black Mask said to a frightened Darla Aquista.

He held a shinning silver pistol in his hand and lowered near his thigh. His light grey overcoat was slightly dirty and smudged from a night of failure and setbacks, but it was about to become a lot more pleasant. Pleasant for him, anyway.

"Stay back!", Darla quickly spat out as she raised her own pistol, shaking in her unsteady hands, and aimed it at Black Mask's deformed and charred skull. She took a scared step or two away from him. "I mean it!"

"Don't get cute with me, girly.", Black Mask said. "You've never even fired one of those things before, have you?"

Darla didn't say anything, just stared fixatedly at Black Mask while holding the gun aimed at him. From the look in her delicate eyes, it was easy to see her fear.

"Typical." Black Mask began to raise his gun. Suddenly a red blur flew past and knocked the gun out of his hand, with the high-pitched _clang_ of metal striking metal, before flying off again. "Ah!", Mask yelped.

Darla followed the red object with her eyes as it curved upwards on it's trajectory, flew up and over her head, and right back into Robin's gloved hand.

Robin was perched on top of a fire escape like some sort of urban monster, with the bird-a-rang clutched in his hand and a slowly deepening glare that pierced the darkness with the white eyes of his mask's lenses. "Darla. _Run._", he instructed her firmly and urgently.

Darla quickly nodded to Robin, and ran off down the alley away from Black Mask. The pistol was still clutched in both her hands and raised at hip level as she disappeared quickly down a corner.

"Party pooper.", Black Mask said with a mock-pout as he looked up at Robin. "Just had to ruin my big date, didn't ya?"

"If ya think he's bad-", Red Hood began quickly.

Then Black Mask felt both of Hood's feet slam into his back like twin sledgehammers.

"-wait till you see me!", Red Hood said.

Black Mask was smashed face down into the hard dirty floor of the alleyway, while Red Hood simply rolled to the ground gracefully.

"Hood!", Robin said to himself aloud before bolting from his perch. Mid-fall he launched the bird-a-rang at Red Hood. "This ends! _Tonight!_"

Hood rolled to the side to dodge the bird-a-rang and sprang to his feet just as Robin landed next to him and shot out a kick aimed for Hood's red metal mask.

Red Hood sidestepped to behind Robin, dodging the kick, and grabbed the edge of his cape. "Couldn't agree more!"

Robin yanked away and took a short leap back, landing between Red Hood and Black Mask. It was then that he realized that a thin cable was trailing away from his cape where Red Hood grabbed it.

Hood withdrew a smile rocket launcher-pistol from his jacket, with the cable leading from Robin's cape directly to the side of a small rocket in the launcher. "But you'll have to wait your turn." He pulled the trigger.

The rocket shot out of the launcher, then its engine kicked to life in mid-air.

Robin snapped his head around as he watched the rocket fly past him and over a moaning Black Mask. Then the cable went taunt. And Robin was flying off, being tugged away thanks to the cable attached to his cape by some sort of adhesive.

"Buh bye.", Red Hood smirked under his mask as he gave a pleasant wave at Robin.

"Ha.", Black Mask said as he groaned while getting up. "The bird boy went flying. Cute." He looked up from the ground, just in time to see Red Hood's gloved fist. "Umph!"

Black Mask's charred face slammed against the dirty brick wall of the adjacent building. He recovered quickly and darted for Red Hood, but Hood greeted him with a series of jabs and crosses to his skull, then a kick to his stomach that sent him back to the ground.

Red Hood loomed over Mask for a moment as he withdrew his knife from his jacket. "Oh… I'm gonna enjoy this.", Hood said as he stared down at Mask and spun the knife once in his gloved grip.

"YAH!" Robin, sans a torn away section of his cape, tackled Red Hood from out of nowhere.

Hood reeled backwards from the impact as Robin pressed forward.

Hood and Robin fell back into the open side door that Darla had just exited the building from, both now inside Red Hood's official headquarters. Dust poofed up from the hardwood floor as both of their Kevlar armored bodies fell to the ground.

The building had once been Harmon Dental, a dentist's office. Now the long ago abandoned building was Red Hood's.

Hood quickly kicked away Robin, and dived off on a roll. "Your letting the bad guy get away just to chase me?", he said as he quickly rose from the roll, and Robin rose from the ground too.

Hood opened a first aid kit mounted on the wall, not too uncommon in a dentist's office. Inside, instead of gauze and bandages, were two fully automatic assault rifles. "Some hero you are!" Hood grabbed them, spun on his heel, and aimed for Robin.

_Ack! Ack! Ack! Ack! Ack! Ack!_

Robin dived and rolled off, hiding behind the reception office's front desk. "Better then you!" From behind the desk he tossed a smoke bomb towards Red Hood.

Hood ran around the side of the reception desk before the smoke bombs could blind him. He expected a clear shot at Robin, but was greeted with a bird-a-rang in the face, followed immediately by another bird-a-rang with an attached line that wrapped around both Hood's guns.

Robin yanked the line, but Hood held firm and fired both tied together weapons.

Robin jumped up just in time. Then Red Hood dropped his tied guns, grabbed Robin, and threw the Titan against a closed and locked door across the room.

Before Robin could recover, Hood tackled into his stomach and the two masked vigilantes crashed through the crumbling door.

On the other side of the door was a staircase leading down into the basement.

Robin had to swallow a yelp and grab anything he could to stop his fall down the stairs, and the side railing possibly saved his life.

Red Hood, on the other hand, managed to lunge upwards, grab a well placed pipe that he knew was there, and swing from the pipe off into the rest of the basement.

With his fall stopped, Robin was thankful he didn't feel anything damaged. His red-breasted Nomex and Kevlar tunic had been more then adequate to absorb the force and protect Robin's very human body. He quickly pulled himself up by the railing, and then regretted falling into this basement.

The basement was lined with guns, ammunition, and explosives. Tables and benches filling up the basement's floor were scatted with tools and partially assembled weapons and bombs. This was Red Hood's workshop and armory.

Red Hood appeared from behind a table, and with a barely audible grunt, lifted up a Dillon Aero M134D gatling gun.

Robin's white eyes went wide and he quickly darted up the stairs.

_Rat Tat Tat Tat Tat Tat Tat Tat Tat Tat Tat Tat Tat Tat Tat Tat Tat Tat Tat!_

Robin scrambled up the stairs as fast as his legs could carry him, with bullets and splintering wood and cracking masonry nipping at his heels.

With a triumphant laugh, Red Hood bounded across tables while still firing wildly.

Robin was soon safe up the stairs and the first thing he realized was that he couldn't outrun bullets, especially bullet's fired by Red Hood. _He's toying with me._, he thought to himself. _Or maybe he's really not trying to kill me…_

"Where ya going?!" Red Hood ceased fire for a moment. "I was just getting to know you!" He emerged from the threshold of the basement's doorway and looked for Robin. Instead, he spotted a small explosive device mounted on the doorway threshold to his right. "Oh-" He quickly held up the gatling gun to shield him from the blast just as the explosive went off.

_Blam!_

Red Hood was slammed into the ground, and threw aside his uselessly damaged gatling gun; thankful he used the hunk of metal as a shield.

From above his head, gloved green hands grabbed him by his jacket's collar, lifted him up, and slammed him into the wall.

Robin growled at Hood as he held him against the wall.

"You do know Mask is getting away right about now, right?", Red Hood said casually, as if Robin's grip was of no concern.

"Titans. Should be here by now.", Robin said simply.

"Oh good… So it's just you and me now. This mean we can play Parcheesi? I call the red pieces.", he said in mock-excitement.

"You don't get it do you?", Robin said with a good deal less control over his emotions. He glared and tried not to grit his teeth at Hood.

"Oh no, I get everything just fine." Red Hood was switching over to a more confident, and maybe a tad bitter, tone. "You're the one who's got a few screws loose. You think you can just call 'Titans! Go!', beat up a monster, and say the day is saved?"

"If you're talking about Black Mask and his organized crime… We can handle him just fine."

"Then why am I here at all?", Hood asked.

"That's a good question." Robin pressed Hood into the wall harder. "Why did you come here?"

"Not a day goes by I don't ask myself that same question." Red Hood chuckled, then glanced off to the side and held up his empty hands in a shrug. "Oh… I don't know… Clean up the streets. Maybe make a little spending money in the process. Do your job for you."

"Do our job?! You started a gang war!"

"Yeah, and after I'm done, who's _not_ gonna be fighting for control anymore?"

"The police! Us! The peop-"

"'Us? Us?!", Red Hood interrupted. "You're talking like you Titans are no better. Like the city is as much yours to control as mine!"

"At least _I'm_ not a criminal!", Robin spat out.

"At least _I'm_ not dumb enough not to notice when someone's hand is in _my_ pocket."

Robin looked down and saw Red Hood's gloved hand remove itself from Robin's utility belt along with Robin's grapnel gun!

Hood fired it, and Robin heard the familiar loud report. He felt his tattered cape give a slight tug as the grapnel passed under it, then go slack again. He heard the whine of high-tension cable quickly unreeling and gears clicking into place.

The bird-a-rang flew up another flight of stairs behind them leading up to the next floor, trailing it's line behind it. The bird-a-rang anchored into the wall and before Robin could make a move of protest, Hood began to retract the line.

Robin and Red Hood flew up the next flight of stairs together, until they slammed into ground together just beyond the stairs.

Robin, being in front, took the brunt of the fall but his resolve was undaunted. He quickly kicked away Red Hood, who rolled away gratefully on the ground.

That's when Robin got to get a look at what this new floor was.

The entire second floor of the Harmon Dental building had been cleared away to mostly one giant room. Soft mats covered the floor. Manikins and crash dummies were covered in slashes, stab wounds, and holes from target practice. Heavy punching and kicking bags were placed sloppily here and there. There was a small rack of weights off to one side and a few exercise machines in the corner.

This was where Red Hood trained, worked out, and honed his combat skills in starch solitude. His gym.

Hood grabbed one of the smaller weights from his rack, a twenty-pound dumbbell, and hurled it at Robin.

Robin barely dodged that one, and the dumbbell punctured a wide hole in the woodened wall behind him. He quickly reached to his belt and withdrew then expanded his bo-staff.

He lunged towards Red Hood with a wide swing of his staff, and Hood responding by grabbing a bear bench press bar and blocking Robin's staff with it.

Robin pressed onwards with his staff and Hood planted his feet and pushed right back with his much heavier bar.

"You're wrong… ya know…", Robin said through grunts of effort.

"Yeah… Go figure.", Hood replied with a grunt of his own.

"About us… About Mask… About this city…"

"What do you know? Neither one of us are… exactly from around here." Red Hood began to gain ground and slowly push Robin back.

"I know enough.", Robin said firmly as he pushed back even harder.

-Under The Hood-

Hood's forces had gathered and converged. Some of Black Mask's forces had gotten past barriers and entered Hood's territory. Police of all kinds were swarming in like they should have done along time ago. And the four remaining Titans found their way into the thick of it.

When the Titans and the police had arrived and gotten serious, many of both Mask's and Hood's soldiers ran off to continue the fight elsewhere or hide in peace.

Of course, not everyone ran off. Some stayed to fight.

Starfire gave off a might warrior's roar as she pored a great deal of effort into a single incredible blast, which sent Mammoth flying across the street and into a building.

Mammoth crawled up to his feet, then tripped back onto the ground and passed out.

Just then behind Starfire, Gizmo ran up with a chainsaw.

Starfire spun around just in time to gasp before Gizmo was blown away by one of Cyborg's sonic blasts.

Gizmo landed on a postal drop box, and moaned in agony for a few moments before scurrying off with his spider-legs to lick his wounds.

"Don't worry, girl! I got your back.", Cyborg said as he ran up, sonic cannon charged and ready.

"Thank you for the assistance.", Starfire said as she hovered in the air. "Where is Robin? Have you seen him?"

"I think he's still with Hood in his headquarters.", Cyborg said. "Jinx and Private Hive and a few of Hood's better men are making their last stand to keep that place locked down tight."

"Not tight enough!", Starfire shouted and flew off towards Red Hood's rusty old headquarters.

But before she could get too far, Johnny Rancid's rebuilt robot T-Rex emerged from between two buildings and tried to swallow Starfire in one giant chomp.

Starfire had to quickly zip out of the way and then began hurling starbolt after starbolt at the mechanical dinosaur.

"What? Rancid?", Cyborg said with dismay. "I thought that guy got locked up already!" He continued to watch as a burst of green light bathed over him for a moment, which was followed by the sound of launching missiles and explosions.

He grimaced to himself then held up his sonic cannon. "Here I come, Star!" He ran off to join Starfire in battle.

-Under The Hood-

Wood cracked and exploded away as Red Hood's body fell back first through a wall.

He landed in the room that Darla Aquista had been kept in, the same room that had previously been configured to hold the cage that imprisoned Starfire.

Hood sat up on the floor and stared at Robin through the hole in the wall. "Not bad. And here I thought you were too much of a girl scout."

Robin stood through the gaping hole in the wall, his own cape tattered and his hair had a thin layer of dust and debris on it. The scow on his face was only intensified by his hard jaw, stiff lips, and glaring eyes.

"Ya know… I bet daddy would be so proud.", Red Hood said.

Robin lunged with a cry at Red Hood, but the jacket-clad crime lord quickly dived away.

Then Robin jumped in the air with legs chambered. Red Hood sidestepped to dodge his kick and punched Robin in the side of his face. Then Hood sprung away when he felt a sharp stabbing pain in his side.

Robin stood lurched on the ground, with a bird-a-rang in hand, it's sharp bladed wing pointing outwards where Hood had been. Robin smirked.

Hood instantly looked down and inspected his side, a tear in the outer fabric but not past the layers of Kevlar. "HA! Ha ha yes!", Red Hood looked up at Robin and clenched his fist. "You baited me with a punch just so you could stab my side? _Now_ you're really fighting!", Hood said. And he was quite happy to say it. "Bought time you got some game!"

"I'm not here to play games.", Robin said as he held up the bird-a-rang higher to guard his face with it. "I'm here to put you behind bars."

"Keep fighting like that-" Hood narrowed his eyes just a fraction of a sliver. "-and you might have a chance. Might…"

Hood suddenly darted forward with new-found vigor.

-Under The Hood-

Gangsters, bangers, and general thugs of every kind were being hauled off by the busloads, all arrested by the city's police force or by Titans themselves. Some of the city's most wanted thugs and supervillains found themselves in cuffs simply because they couldn't pass up on the opportunity or couldn't escape the carnage.

If Red Hood really was planning on cleaning up the city one fair swoop… It was working!

And even now… As the Titans fought the remaining villains… As the police rounded up the remaining thugs, and felt for the first time like they made even a small difference in their city… As criminals and general evil-doers were foiled… As citizens cowered in fear in their homes… As the local media finally got yet another big story… The city was getting cleaned up. And it was by way of a metaphorical, and sometimes literal, controlled burn.

-Under The Hood-

The door to the roof top entrance of Red Hood's headquarters burst open, and Red Hood quickly darted out with his, now trademark, Kris knife held firmly in his hand.

Robin emerged after, with twin bird-a-rangs in hand and crossed over his chest in an X.

Robin slashed with one bladed wing, then the other. And Hood blocked and deflected with swift jerks from his knife.

_Clang._

_Clang._

Up on the rooftop, surrounded by the chaos and battles all around them, Robin and the Red Hood continued their fight. As if it was the only part of this whole gang war that truly mattered.

Metal met metal, as Robin's bird-a-rangs and Hood's knife clashed time and time again.

_Clang._

_Clang._

_Ching._

Red Hood managed to snatch up Robin's right fist in his left hand, and Robin used his remaining hand and bird-a-rang to block a downwards slash from Red Hood's knife.

The superhero and the vigilante turned crime lord stood against each other, a battle of will and muscle rather then technique and skill.

They both knew the smart move would be to try and knee the opponent in the gut, but frankly… Both were tired.

Both broke away and darted backwards. Then stood and stared each other down again while they tried to catch their hard breaths.

"Looks like... their having a great block party down there…", Hood said as he gestured off the rooftop with a nudge of his head. "Think we should join them? Or invite them up to look up at the stars?"

Robin chuckled just once with a crooked smile. "Maybe we should turn on the music while they get soda?"

"I've got a few mixed tapes downstairs. I hear Cyborg just bought a new boom box."

"Starfire makes great punch."

"Can we play pin the tail on the Beast Boy?"

"After Raven."

Robin and Red Hood stood, almost sad and regretful that their little mock-scenario of friendship and alliance couldn't at least be a little bit true.

When they had last fought, Red Hood had needed a great deal of effort to defeat Robin. Now, built up by the shame of defeat and the obsession to become more impervious next time, Robin was serious, driven, and much better.

Red Hood's metal mask was scratched and his jacket torn. Robin's cape tattered, his tunic dirty.

Both breathed heavy and stared at each other.

"Why…?", Robin asked.

"Why?", Red Hood repeated, with a subtle tilt of his helmeted head.

"Why do all this…?" Robin, exhausted and sore, looked around briefly. "Why go through all the effort of taking over the city? And why fight me?"

Red Hood didn't answer.

"Why? Who are you? Someone who Black Mask hurt? Or someone we hurt somehow? Did your home get destroyed in a fight? Or did Mask or Slade or even Blood burn it and we didn't get there in time?!", Robin demanded. "Why? Why are you doing all this, Hood?"

"I need a reason?", Red Hood replied. "Like anyone needs a reason to want to take down a piece of scum like Black Mask?"

"But you're only replacing him!", Robin announced to Hood.

"Might seem that way at first! Who says I'm through with my plans?", Red Hood defended. "But if you really think about it, Bird Boy… Just really sit down to think about it…"

"I have! Every single day since we fought in the Tower.", Robin spat back. "You say you're going to clean up the city, the way I couldn't. The way the Teen Titans couldn't!" Robin paused, only to catch his breath and grit his teeth a little. "We've defended this city time and time again! Not just from monsters and supervillains. We've taken down Slade, got rid of Brother Blood-"

"Yeah!", Red Hood interrupted Robin. "And how long did it take you to do that?! Slade came back, and ya had to put him down again. And H.I.V.E. still has a half way decent grip on Steel City." He paused. "But I guess that's Titans East's problem, isn't it?", he said with a tint of sarcasm.

Robin was short on a reply for that one, and no less angry for it.

"And in the time it took for you and your friends to pull your head out of the sofa cushions, how many mistakes did you make?", Red Hood said. "You want another Terra? Another Red X?"

Robin's gloved fingers tightened around the bird-a-rangs a bit more. "You think we wanted that?", he said slowly, meditating on the biggest mistakes of both the Teen Titan's and his own. "You think we didn't even try? You think I didn't search for Slade every single day?! What else were we supposed to do?!"

"Hit harder.", Red Hood simply said.

Robin wasn't quite sure what he met, but you couldn't tell past the scow on his face.

"It's a war. 'War on Crime' or something like that.", Hood said. "Yeah, wars have casualties. They're ugly that way. But ya can't win a war by pulling your punches! You either get in there and give it _everything_ you got, or you step out of the way and let _somebody else_ do it." He paused. "War's aren't won with half-hearts. Not usually anyway."

"So what? The Titans get out there with machine guns? Start hiring up villains to take down other villains? Start blowing up everything in sight?!"

"Hey, never said ya had to do it _my_ way." Red Hood tilted his head off to the side while he shrugged. "I just said that you needed to grow up a bit more and take off the kid gloves. Although… Blowing stuff up is a lot of fun."

Robin couldn't help but chuckle just once, and though for a moment about Hood's misplaced wisdom. "So where's that leave me and the rest of the Titans?"

"Listen...", Hood said in a more somber tone. "No one ever said you guys didn't do your job. This city's better with you then without you. You're all heroes and even I won't argue that." He admitted. "But you're too much of a kid at it. And you're a bit spoiled too."

"Why…", Black Mask said as he grabbed the back of Red Hood's jacket's collar, and kicked Hood's back. "…do they always monologue?!"

"Umph!" Hood stumbled forward as his jacket was pulled right off his arms, and he took just a nanosecond to curse himself for actually being surprised and disarmed. He fell on to the ground just before Robin.

"You!", Robin scowled as he threw one of his chipped bird-a-rangs at Black Mask.

Mask, who had his hand deep in the jacket, pulled his hand out and swung the jacket at the bird-a-rang to deflect the stray bladed projectile. Then he held up a heavy blaster pistol, that he had stolen from Hood's jacket just a second ago.

Hood was already getting back up onto his feet.

Mask aimed the blaster.

_Blast!_

Suddenly, Hood was in front of Robin, and took the blast strait to his chest.

"Hood!", Robin cried as the crime lord turned vigilante doubled over onto his knees. Robin quickly glanced at Mask and threw his second chipped bird-a-rang.

This time, the bird-a-rang hit its target, and impact to Mask's wrist was hard enough to cut the gangster and make him drop the blaster.

"Ah…", Black Mask hissed as he clutched his empty hand and glanced at his cut wrist. Then he quickly darted to the side as he pulled out Hood's other blaster.

Robin quickly withdrew a freeze-disk from his belt.

Then Mask and Robin stood still, each aiming their weapons at each other.

Robin's tattered cape blew in the wind, as did Red Hood's jacket that was clutched in Mask's hand.

"Looks like we got ourselves an old fashioned Mexican standoff, huh?", Mask said.

"Hood…?", Robin asked slowly without taking his eyes away from Mask.

"I'll live…", Red Hood groaned. "Armor." The fabric over his chest had been burnt away by the blast, exposing the Kevlar armor plates and Aramid fibers below that made Hood's under armor.

"Why'd you take the shot?", Robin asked.

Red Hood lifted his head and glared upwards at Black Mask. "Because… If something happened to you, the city and all your little friends would throw a hissy fit.", he said, half-bitterly and half-somberly. "But me…?"

Red Hood straitened his back and stood strait while kneeling, facing Black Mask and his jacket-less back to Robin. "No one's gonna cry over me!", he cried as his hand lifted from his belt and pointed it at Black Mask. Inside his gloved hand was a tightly clutched detonator, with a red button nuzzled under Hood's thumb.

"Hood, stop!", Robin said, taking his eyes away from Black Mask.

"Uh oh.", Black Mask said like a cartoon.

Red Hood's thumb pressed the button.

_**BLAST!!!**_

Sudden a huge blast was heard from inside Red Hood's headquarter's basement, and a concussion of sound and inferno ripped apart through the walls and shattered the windows, turning glass to powder and bricks to pebble.

The expanding inferno raised up through the rest of the structure, and flames and explosions ripped apart the rest of the old brick building. Flash firebombs strategically placed throughout Harmon Dental blew out windows. And a particular section of wall on the third flow was completely blown away, with blackened and fried computer components being sent through the air.

The supports of the building, virtually vaporized in the blast from the basement alone, quickly gave way to gravity. And what was left of the building that was left whole began to crumble and fall…

Up on top, the roof quickly began to fall downwards as the rest of the building collapsed below it.

"Agh!!!" Mask screamed as he latched onto a steam pipe.

"Hood!!!", Robin yelled as he and the Red Hood were both swallowed up in the dust and smoke, sinking deeper and deeper…

The building collapsed, and fell into what was once it's basement.

All around, Titans and police and villains all alike, had paused their fights and watched on as the building's basement exploded and collapsed into itself.

And it was then replaced by a billowing cloud of smoke and dust that rose into the air like a leper's begging hand.

"Robin!", Starfire screamed as she quickly flew over, before any villain could gather his wits to stop her.

The rest of the Titans immediately rushed for the wreckage, as did a few hired thugs and police officers. Mr. Li was rushing as fast as his legs could carry him.

Starfire landed on the wreckage and shifting rubble. "Robin! Red Hood! Anybody?!", she called out as she looked around.

She heard footsteps beneath shifting rubble, and spun around happily. Then frowned and gasped silently to herself.

Black Mask stood out from the smoke and dust. He shed his ruined coat, and clutched Red Hood's scuffed jacket as a trophy. He walked across of the carnage that had once been Red Hood's home.

"You! Where- Where is Robin? Where is the Red Hood?", Starfire demanded of him as he passed by her.

"Worm chow, toots!", he said happily.

Starfire stood frozen.

"Star…", a groggy labored voice said.

"Robin!", Starfire exclaimed as she rushed over and pulled Robin's bruised body out of some rubble.

Neither he nor Black Mask would have survived if they hadn't been on the roof, with nothing to collapse on top of them.

Robin leaned tiredly against Starfire, his sore arm wrapped around her shoulders for support. "Where… Where's Hood?", he asked with a slight growl.

"Gone!", Black Mask happily shouted as he climbed to the top of the highest pile of rubble. He happily giggled to himself. "Gone! Gone gone gone. Gone gone gone.", he sang to himself. When he reached to top of the pile he turned back to Starfire and Robin and said, "Ding dong the freak is gone! Ha ha! Whoo! It's about time, too!" Black Mask turned to the rest of the city and the crowed that had gathered.

Police were quickly arresting the last of the villains and thugs, but truthfully, most of them were more concerned about the building that just blew up and collapsed.

"Here that, City?!", he called out with outstretched embracing arms. "Red Hood's finally a red stain buried beneath lots and lots of rubble! I win! I am, and _still_ am, king of the mountain, baby! Ha ha ha!" He laughed to himself grandly, drunk with the glory of victory.

"Psst… Hey, potato head!", Red Hood called out in a whisper.

"What?!", Black Mask spat as he snapped his head around and looked behind him.

Red Hood lunged at him, from out of seemingly no where, with a savage battle cry.

"Ack!", was all the dumbfounded Black Mask could say as he was tackled to the ground and slammed into the awkward rubble. "Umph!", was all the sound he made when Red Hood's gloved fist crashed into his jaw like a sledgehammer.

A wet _Thump_, was the sound of Hood's next fist slamming into the other side of Mask's charred jaw. Then another punch as Hood knelt perched and mounted atop Black Mask, beating his skull without mercy.

_Thump!_

_Thump! _

Punch after punch. Punch after punch.

Red Hood raised both his hands, and then _clubbed_ Black Mask's face with them.

_Crack!_

Blood spattered against Hood's gloves, and lightly sprayed over the rocks and rubble that made Black Mask's bed.

Mr. Li, and each of the Teen Titans, all stood frozen as they stood on the rubble and watched. Police and bystanders watched from the streets.

Everyone watched. Some where too shocked to move. Others had no desire to stop it. Some were simply too tired or injured to move, their bodies protesting to any desire to move. And others still, were simply to ah-struck and caught up in the climax to move or even blink. Everyone watched.

Red Hood beat Black Mask, in a fit of rage and boiled up emotion.

"You!", Hood said.

_Thump!_

"Don't!"

_Whack!_

"Win!"

Hood raises his clubbed fists once more to swing down upon Black Mask's skull… Then paused.

Black Mask's skull was battered and bleeding. There was a gentle rise and fall to Black Mask's chest as his head laid limp against a pillow made of concrete and rebar.

Red Hood exhaled sharply and lowered his fists, exhaling the last of his primal rage.

He stood, and yanked his jacket from Mask's hand.

He plunged one arm through it's sleeve, swung it around, and plunged his other arm is. He heaved the heavy jacket back onto his shoulders, covering the holsters on his body that held his knife and a grapnel pistol. And with a brisk jerk of his fingers, he straitened his collar.

"You… You actually did it.", Mr. Li said.

Red Hood glanced up from his jacket and too Mr. Li.

"You beat him… You won. You own the city.", Mr. Li said in astonishment.

"Yeah… Guess I do.", Red Hood said vigorously. Then he looked out at the city, the same view Black Mask had just a moment ago, and held out his own arms in a sort of embrace. "I won…", he said with, for first the time, a certain sense of peace.

He paused, and savored the moment. The glory. The victory. Red Hood had taken over all of Jump City's organized crime, in record time. It was his. All of it, minus a little sliver that Aquista had for now. Jump City was his…

He inhaled. "Well! That was fun!"

Then he turned right around, skipped down the pile of rubble, and patted Mr. Li on the shoulder as he passed him by. "Smithers, you're in charge."

"What?", Mr. Li asked.

"WHAT?!", seemed to be the collective response from everyone else.

Robin's eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

Beast Boy alone almost did a face-plant into the rubble.

Starfire hovered into the air and carried Robin with her closer to Red Hood.

"Hood!", Robin called out as him and Robin gently landed closer to Red Hood. "You can't be serious…"

"What?", Red Hood asked. "Think I'm crazy enough to hang around in this dump?" He chuckled. "I took over a city in less then a month. Who else can say that, hmm?", he said with a happy shrug.

Robin… was completely dumbfounded.

And so was everyone else.

Red Hood spun around on his heel and began walking off casually, as if strolling through the park instead of skipping across rubble. "Only thing that would make this day better was if I got a T-Shirt to match!" He laughed to himself as he passed right by the rest of the Titans and continued to trot right off merrily.

"You're… You're kidding me, right?", Cyborg asked rhetorically.

"Um… Shouldn't we… Um… Stop him?", Beast Boy asked.

Raven was too busy twitching to answer.

"Hey! Freeze!", a single white-armor clad police officer shouted as Red Hood passed by.

Suddenly, Red Hood broke from his trot and sprinted off to the side, with the officer giving him chase.

Red Hood gave a gentle wave to the rest of the Teen Titans, just before he disappeared beyond the mouth of the alleyway.

"Should we give chase?", Starfire asked.

"Don't bother.", Robin said.

Several other white-armor clad "Stormtroopers" followed in pursuit and entered the alley, but all they found the first police officer unconscious against a dirty brick wall.

And a sewer manhole was open, it's lid slid off to the side. Nothing could be heard from the darkness beyond and below the hole.

Robin, to even his own surprise, smiled.

-Under The Hood-

The next morning.

"Phew!", Mammoth said as he gratefully closed the main door to the H.I.V.E. Five's headquarters and rested his back against it. "Glad that's over."

"I'll say…", SeeMore rubbed his sore head.

"Home sweet home!", Gizmo said happily as he stepped into the living room.

Jinx slapped him on the back of the head.

"Ow! Hey! What was that for?!", Gizmo demanded.

"If you hadn't gone Benedict Arnold on us, we never would have wound up with that giant mess on our hands!", Jinx explained.

"Eh…", Gizmo waved off. "What good was that Red Hood anyway? We didn't even get our final paycheck from the barf-guzzler."

"Then what's that?", SeeMore asked as he stepped into the room and pointed to the couch.

"Eh?", Jinx looked over at the couch.

Five individual presents were laid out evenly across the seats of the couch. Each one had a tag with one of the H.I.V.E. Five's names on it.

"Presents!", Mammoth said as he rushed over, grabbed a box, and ripped it's top off and tore it's ribbon in the process. Then his eyes lit up.

"What is it?", Private HIVE asked as he stepped into the living room last.

"Money!", Mammoth said. "And lots of it!"

"Our paychecks!", SeeMore said as he rushed to the other end of the couch to grab his. "Oh _yeah_!"

"Hood came through!" Jinx jumped over the back of the couch and snatched up her present. "Told you!", she said to Gizmo.

Gizmo mumbled angrily to himself.

SeeMore, Jinx, and Private HIVE all opened up their presents.

Jinx got double what she had originally been promised by Red Hood, which she surmised must have been a reward for her loyal effort. Her bonus was a secret she decided to keep to herself.

"Alright, alright! Out of the way, snot munchers!", Gizmo said as he pushed and crawled his way through the happy commotion of villains getting paid. "Where's _mine?!_"

"I think that's it.", Mammoth said as he pointed to the last unopened package, with a tag that read "To: Gizmo" on it.

Private HIVE scoffed. "I can't believe a traitor like _you_ still gets to be rewarded."

"Yeah…", Jinx said. "How come you still get paid when you snitched on Hood and gave us all that trouble?"

"I dunno.", Gizmo said as he picked up his present. "I must've showed him who's boss!", he cackled to himself for a moment. Then he shook his present up and down. "Ooo. Sounds really full." He sneered at the others, obviously savoring the thought. "I must have _really_ showed him."

Jinx, Private HIVE, and the rest of the H.I.V.E. Five glared in annoyance or disgust.

Then he set the package back on the couch's seat and pulled open the ribbon. "Well I guess it serves the barf-brain, right. Teach him to mess with me." Then he lifted the lid…

And a swarm of _very_ angry bees emerged from inside the box.

"Agh!", Gizmo screamed.

"Bees!", Mammoth yelled.

"Run!", Jinx yelled.

"AGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!", Gizmo squealed.

-Under The Hood-

Days later.

A green car parked on the side of a deserted road late at night, just outside of Jump City city limits. The driver side door opened and Red Hood, in a fresh and undamaged costume, stepped out.

"So you and your dad have a little play date tonight?", Red Hood asked into the cell phone he held against his red metal mask.

"Yep.", Darla Aquista said happily into her phone on the other side of the city. Safe in her own home again, she sat at the foot of her bed and looked at two dresses hanging from her closet door. She had to decide which one she'd wear to dinner with her father tonight.

"Guess the guy's trying to make it up to you or something.", Red Hood as he retrieved his own emergency duffle bag from the car, the one that Darla had kept safe for him until she gave it back to him a day later.

"Yeah? Well he's gonna owe me a lot of dinners and dresses before any of that happens."

Hood laughed. "Did you hear about Black Mask and Li?"

"Just bits and rumors."

"D.A.'s throwing the book at both of them. But first Mask has to finish having his jaw wired back into place.", Hood said as he closed the car door with a kick.

"Yeah. Everyone's talking about that beating."

"Be lying if I didn't say I didn't enjoy it."

Darla suppressed a chuckle. "What I wanna know is where that mountain of evidence that was dumped into the D.A.'s lap came from. Any guesses, Hood?"

"A little birdy told him?"

Darla laughed. "All that insider info? Not likely."

"Guess it's just one of life's little mysteries…", Hood said.

Darla smiled to herself. After a moment, she asked, "Where are you going?"

"Not sure.", Red Hood said as he stepped into the middle of the deserted road. "But I'm sure you'll hear about it when I do."

"Take care of yourself."

"You really outta see a shrink about that Stockholm syndrome."

Darla chuckled.

"Goodbye, Darla. You'll hear from me again."

"Bye, Hood.", she said almost sadly.

_Beep.  
_

Red Hood hung up, and then tossed the cell phone through the car's open window of the driver side door.

He held up a small remote control, looked at the car, and pressed a button.

A small blast inside the car started a wave of fire that quickly engulfed the entire vehicle. Previously soaked accelerants made quick work of the car and any evidence that Red Hood had ever been inside.

Just as the explosives and rubble had erased any trace of the Harmon Dental building ever once being Red Hood's headquarters.

Red Hood casually tossed the remote control detonator into the blaze, and looked off down the long road ahead.

He set down his bag, and took off his jacket. Then he hung the jacket over his left shoulder by a hooked index finger, and picked up the bag again with his right hand.

With jacket hanging over shoulder and all important items hanging from his hand, with the heat of a flaming car nipping at his back…

Red Hood walked off down the road. And, eventually, out of sight.

-The End-

………………………………………………………………………………...

"Do not hit at all if it can be avoided, but never hit softly."

-Theodore Roosevelt.

………………………………………………………………………………...

Author's Note: Well… It's finally finished. Took me some time between updates, but I proudly finish the very first adaptation of Red Hood into the animated world of the Teen Titans. Or at least as animated as a fanfiction gets.

I had a lot of fun writing this one. It was hard to constantly find new strings of pseudo profanity for Gizmo to say. But it was fun to invent a bunch of phrases for killing, since I try to keep my TT fics the same rating as the show.

And, truthfully, I wouldn't mind working with Red Hood again, but only if enough readers ask it of me. Since I don't have many ideas for what I'd write about, I'd need some good suggestions and ideas.

Hope you enjoyed, _Under The Hood._


End file.
